Hyperloop One co-founder sues firm, over alleged harassment
13 Jul 2016
Hyperloop One co-founder Brogan BamBrogan, who recently pulled out of the venture has filed a restraining order against the company's former legal head Afshin Pishevar and a lawsuit against both Afshin and his brother, who is BamBrogan's former startup partner Shervin Pishevar. Shervin Pishevar co founder and MD of VC firm Sherpa Capital.
Hyperloop One, which is working towards realising the Elon Musk-mooted transport mode that would see people and goods across the country transported at 700 mph in a vacuum tube, had raised $92 million so far, largely backed by Pishevar's Sherpa Capital. Pishevar, is the board chair co-founded the company with BamBrogan.
BamBrogan last week left the company offering no explanation, and was replaced by Josh Geigel as the new co-founder and CTO. The sudden departure comes after another immediate removal - that of of Afshin Pishevar. Recode, which first reported Afshin's departure, also noted that assistant general counsel David Pendergast had left around the same time.
Afshin also allegedly threatened BamBrogan, court documents reveal as also footage from a surveillance camera, by placing a hangman's noose on BamBrogan's chair following a dispute between BamBrogan and Shervin about a trip to Russia. Hyperloop One announced it had partnered with the Russian government in June to build a transit system in Moscow (See:Hyperloop One signs deal with Summa Group to construct hyperloop in Moscow ).
BamBrogan and three other former Hyperloop One executives alleged that the company's current top leadership had given lucrative jobs and raises to relatives and, and in one case, a girlfriend. It further said the leadership took inadvisable financial decisions to pocket more money themselves and harassed other employees.
The lawsuit, names the company as also its as co-founder Shervin Pishevar, investor and board member Joseph Lonsdale, CEO Rob Lloyd and former general counsel Afshin Pishevar as defendants.
According to commentators, even as Hyperloop One was making headlines in May about its prototype design that used maglev technology, in the Nevada desert to send a sled whizzing down a track, the company's management was in turmoil, the lawsuit indicated.
