The ongoing legal battle between transportation startup Hyperloop One and four recently departed employees just took another twist.
In a counter lawsuit filed today, Hyperloop One accuses co-founder and former CTO Brogan BamBrogan, plus former employees Knut Sauer, David Pendergast and William Mulholland, of plotting to start a rival company dubbed “Hyperloop Two” (or “Newco”).
Read more: Brogan BamBrogan sues Hyperloop One for harassment
According to Hyperloop One, the former employees were engaged in misconduct, and are accused of breaching non-compete and non-disparagement clauses. It claims that prior to his resignation, BamBrogan registered the domain name hyperlooptoo.com.
A Whois search reveals that the address is registered to a gunsbrogan@yahoo.com, Brogan BamBrogan is listed as the registrant and a Los Angeles address is also shown on the listing. This search also shows that the site was registered on May 25 2016.
Updated: July 20 It appears that reference to Brogan BamBrogan's name and address have been removed from the Whois listing. WIRED took a screengrab of how it looked before this change which is shown below
Notably, Hyperloop One claims the most unusual element of BamBrogan’s lawsuit – namely, that co-founder Shervin Pishevar’s brother Ashfin Pishevar, hired as the company’s general counsel, left a hangman’s noose on BamBrogan’s desk in order to intimidate him – was not a threat. Instead it was “a rope tied with a lasso knot, not a hangman’s knot, left on the desk where BamBrogan’s kept his trademark cowboy hat”. However, the filing also clarifies Afshin Pishevar's contract with the firm has been terminated.
(Update: Bambrogan's attorney Justin Berger has responded, "The noose was a threat of violence, and even company recognized it as such – firing Afshin immediately and hiring armed security guards to patrol the campus after the noose was left.")
It also disputes the original lawsuits’ allegations of nepotism and improper conduct by board members.
In the initial lawsuit, filed last week, the former employees had alleged the company had engaged in threatening behaviour (including the noose–or–lasso incident); breached fiduciary duties and misused funds, “to augment their personal brands, enhance their romantic lives, and line their pockets (and those of family members).”
Bambrogan’s request for a restraining order against Afshin Pishevar was dismissed by a judge.
In a statement, Hyperloop One’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, told WIRED: “Today’s lawsuit demonstrates these four defendants staged a failed coup to try to take over Hyperloop One and, failing that, conspired to steal our intellectual property and start their own company.
“They engaged in gross misconduct in pursuit of their illegal plan. They will now be held fully accountable in a court of law.
“Today’s filing also makes clear that the complaint filed last week was an attempt to divert attention, through lies and half-truths, from the erratic and insurrectionist behaviour of these four individuals.
“Hyperloop One’s board and management is unified in standing up to this illicit attack on the company, and today the company is stronger than ever in its mission to bring the Hyperloop to the world.”
In a response, Justin Berger, Bambrogan, Knut, Mulholland and Prendergast's lawyer, said, "Hyperloop One’s cross complaint goes beyond revisionist history – it's pure fiction, and that will be shown by the evidence. Knowing their improper actions made them culpable, Defendants fabricated a story, put part of it out in a so-called statement and then expanded it in their court papers."
Berger also denied allegations Bambrogan had turned up to work "with alcohol on his breath" and that he had registered the domain "hyperlooptoo.com' "as a joke at the prompting of a coworker, and never intended to use it for business".
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
