Drama seems to follow Elon Musk wherever he goes.
First we had the controversy over whether he deserved to be called a co-founder of PayPal. Then he was sued by Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard over the exact same issue. And two weeks ago, Musk proposed that Tesla acquire troubled SolarCity, which he chairs and is run by his two first cousins.
Now, Musk’s Hyperloop concept is in jeopardy over a fantastic feud between Hyperloop One’s co-founders. A lawsuit filed by ousted CTO Brogan BamBrogan (more on the name later) against executive chairman Shervin Pishevar and the company alleges breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, wrongful termination, retaliation, defamation and assault.
While Musk is not directly involved in Silicon Valley’s latest soap opera, his other company, SpaceX, developed the initial high-speed pod and tube concept and licensed it to Hyperloop One (formerly Hyperloop Technologies) as open source technology. Also Pishevar and BamBrogan are both close associates of Musk. He appears to be their connection.
Pishevar is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist who’s backed dozens of tech startups, including Uber and Hyperloop One. He’s also a big donor and fund-raiser for various Democratic Party candidates, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
While his name was actually Kevin Brogan at the time, BamBrogan (after marrying Bambi Liu, Bambi plus Brogan became BamBrogan) was a key engineer at SpaceX for nearly a decade before joining forces with Pishevar to form Hyperloop One in 2014. As with many startups, the partnership hasn’t gone as smoothly as planned.
On Tuesday, BamBrogan and three other executives filed a 29-page complaint against the company, Pishevar, investor Joe Lonsdale, CEO Rob Lloyd and Afshin Pishevar (former general counsel and Shervin’s brother) alleging a veritable smorgasbord of dysfunctional behavior that includes cronyism, nepotism and a death threat.
According to the suit, the “money men” in control of the company marginalized the plaintiffs and the engineering team and used their hard work to “augment their personal brands, enhance their romantic lives, and line their pockets (and those of their family members).”
The complaint claims that Pishevar “installed” his own brother, who previously ran a small law firm in Maryland, as general counsel, and granted him compensation and equity far exceeding what the engineers were awarded. It also alleges that Pishevar paid a PR vendor he was dating $40,000 a month and that Lonsdale “insisted the company hire his little brother’s two-person outfit” as its “exclusive investment bank.”