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If We Never Get A Hyperloop, It's Because The Company Is Run By Children
Because Silicon Valley culture encourages its so-called titans of industry to remain in a state of perpetually arrested development, it's not too uncommon to see companies ripped apart by ludicrous lawsuits with absurd allegations.
Hyperloop One, one of the ventures purportedly developing technology for Elon Musk's L.A. to S.F. in 35-minutes vacuum tube, is one of these companies currently undergoing some significant ripping. Though the company put on a public test of its proposed Hyperloop propulsion system back in May, a lawsuit filed on Tuesday throws some sort-of serious allegations of mismanagement and tomfoolery against the company's current leadership, according to the L.A. Times.
The lawsuit was filed by Brogan BamBrogan, one of Hyperloop One's co-founders and the company's previous Chief Technology Officer. BamBrogan, who was once named just Kevin Brogan, is accusing his co-founder Shervin Pishevar and the company itself of wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, assault and some other stuff.
BamBrogan, along with other company leaders who feel wronged, allege that Pishevar "established an autocratic governance culture rife with nepotism, and wasted the company's precious cash," according to the Verge. The lawsuit alleges Pishevar did things like throw frequent and lavish parties at Hyperloop One's downtown L.A. offices, hire his spouse and pay her $40,000 monthly for a P.R. job and hire his brother Afshin Pishevar as Hyperloop One's company attorney, despite the Afshin's inexperience in corporate law.
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Also named in the lawsuit is investor Joe Lonsdale. Together, Lonsdale and Pishevar command 78 percent of the company's assets, a number BamBrogan alleges encourages abuse.
Chief among the allegations is BamBrogan's claim that Afshin Pishevar tied and lay a hangman's noose across BamBrogan's office chair after he and others raised concerns over the alleged corruption. In the hours before the noose incident, BamBrogran and several others penned a letter to the company's leadership asking for management reforms. Coinciding with the noose were several firings and demotions, allegedly related to the asks for reform.
Anyway, the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday so Hyperloop One hasn't had a chance to formally respond yet. Neither Pishevar nor Lonsdale responded to the Times' request for comment. In a response to the Verge's request, attorneys for Hyperloop One said that BamBrogan and others attempted a failed coup, and that their allegations are "delusional."
Whatever! It's not like Hyperloop was ever going to happen anyway.
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