Tesla sues its alleged saboteur for $167M

https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/12/tesla-seeks-167-million-damages-saboteur/

88 51 8 years ago

_ea1k• 8 years ago

I've wondered for a bit as to why they chose such an unrealistic number. Maybe because they knew this would bait the media into reporting on it again, now that his "whistleblower" case has effectively fallen apart?

amingilani• 8 years ago

I'm inclined to agree with you. There's literally no new information in this article except that new number.

sgc• 8 years ago

Partially, but also just to indicate what they perceive to be the real damage from his actions, so that in the future people can evaluate if their personal vendettas are worth the harm they cause. (Of course I see the irony given recent history at the company, but future deterrence is a large motivator for many lawsuits).

nitrogen• 8 years ago

Isn't the use of a lawsuit to deter speaking out illegal (SLAPP)?

adonnjohn• 8 years ago

Could you elaborate a bit on the whistleblower stuff falling apart?

eduah10• 8 years ago

His lawyers have abandoned him and he is now defending himself on the supposed whistleblower case.

twblalock• 8 years ago

I've wondered for a bit as to why they chose such an unrealistic number.

If I wanted to win N dollars in a lawsuit I would start by asking for some multiple of N. I would probably get what I wanted if the defense convinces the judge or jury to reduce the damages or tries to negotiate a settlement.

Especially in the case of negotiating a settlement, if you start by asking for exactly what you want you'll get less than that.

hornbaker• 8 years ago

Surprised he didn’t ask for $420M.

onetimemanytime2• 8 years ago

This is academic, I seriously doubt he has $167 Million. Tesla just wants to ruin him for obvious reasons (deterrence, payback, send a message)

btian• 8 years ago

It's not unrealistic that his conducts did $167M worth of damages.

Obviously Tesla won't be able to recover that much from him, but that happens after the judgement.

Simulacra• 8 years ago

I don't think it's an unrealistic number. The guy hacked the system and downloaded information, distributing that which caused the stock price to dip. Tesla has a definitive loss. What that exact number is could be up to debate, but just because the defendant is a person instead of a company does not diminish the level of damage done to Tesla.

bildung• 8 years ago

distributing that which caused the stock price to dip. Tesla has a definitive loss.

How did a stock price dip cause a loss to Tesla?

thebluehawk• 8 years ago

For starters, it affects how easily they could raise cash by borrowing money, during a time when they desperately needed capitol.

onetimemanytime2• 8 years ago

Stock price caused Tesla be valued less. Bonds, stock options, add more collateral to cover loans, sold to cover loans....?

But apparently Tesla was valued less because of these actions at that time.

cbanek• 8 years ago

Tesla also have some convertible bonds out there that can be converted to stock if the stock price is above a certain number, but otherwise I think Tesla has to pay it back in cash.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/elon-musks-tesla-stock-boost...

rtkwe2• 8 years ago

Is saboteur really the right word for that though? Maybe it's just the association I've made but that to me denotes something much more active and directly damaging than just leaking damaging information.

eduah10• 8 years ago

That's literally the accusation, that he doctored information he then gave to jurnalist to harm the company

blueboo2• 8 years ago

the loss of...being exposed for deceiving its shareholders

the level of damage done shall not be diminished, folks

eduah10• 8 years ago

FYI, his whistle blower case has fallen apart and he is now having to represent himself on that since his lawyers have abandoned him on that

DoubleCribble2• 8 years ago

What did he whistleblow on exactly? That car manufacturing is dirty? That parts of the vehicle get dinged & scratched and are still used? What is the revelation here?

NullPrefix• 8 years ago

Did he actually whistleblow?

Whistleblowers leak either to general public or regulators. From the article it sounds like the data went to some private 3rd party. Correct me if I'm wrong.

DoubleCribble2• 8 years ago

Tripp filed a whistleblower lawsuit with the SEC as part of his publicity campaign. It's mentioned in the linked article about the tweets.[0]

[0]https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/martin-tripp-tesla-tweet...

rightbyte• 8 years ago

"The former employee, who used to work as a process engineer at Tesla's Gigafactory, filed a complaint of his own with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June. He accused Tesla of making 'material omissions and misstatements' to investors as well as of putting cars with safety issues on the road."

He did whistle-blow according to the article. According to another article he denies dumping data. https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/martin-tripp-tesla-tweet...

manicdee• 8 years ago

One of the specific claims was that a robot intended for packaging lithium cells into battery modules misbehaved and punctured the battery module casings, damaging some of the cells. He alleges that Tesla then simply fixed the robot, and sent dangerously damaged battery modules to be integrated not vehicles. He published a list of Model 3 VINs which he alleges have the dangerous matters modules installed.

There are other claims about unsafe storage of hazardous waste, but that battery module claim is the one that sticks in my memory.

eduah10• 8 years ago

Tripp was represented by Meissner Associates in the whistleblower matter earlier, but is now representing himself, attorney Stuart Meissner told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/tesla-seeks-167-million-in-d...

leowoo91• 8 years ago

Who would be best to track such incidents within the company? IT department or SecOps?

wil421• 8 years ago

The security group should respond and manage the incident while working with their IT counterparts to fix the systems that were exposed.

woodandsteel• 8 years ago

I think Tesla is suing Mills for several reasons. One is to discourage activity it thinks is sabotage and slander. Secondly it wants to do discovery to discover if he was working for someone who wanted to undermine Tesla, like a stock shorter or a fossil fuel or automotive company, who it would then sue next. And I am guessing it is also a preparation for another suit against the sleazy media company that published his claims, again to see if one of the above enemies was behind it.

As for the $167 million claim, the idea is not to get the money from Mills, which Tesla is perfectly aware is impossible. Rather it is to set the value for a later lawsuit, and also to let people know it is serious about defending itself.

sytelus• 8 years ago

Musk/Tripp email exchanges:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/06/21...

Tesla sues its alleged saboteur for $167M

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