Two days after Elon Musk accused an unknown employee of “extensive and damaging” sabotage, on Wednesday morning the company filed a lawsuit in Nevada against a Martin Tripp, a Sparks, Nevada-based disgruntled former employee for allegedly exporting gigabytes of confidential data.
While the car maker said it is only beginning to understand all of former process technician Martin Tripp’s allegedly illegal activity, in the suit Tesla said that Tripp “has thus far admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s manufacturing operating system (“MOS”) and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities.”
The data supposedly also includes “dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems.” In addition to that, CNBC notes that Tesla alleges Tripp wrote computer code to periodically export Tesla’s data to outside parties, who are so far “unknown.”
According to Tesla, shortly after Tripp joined Tesla, he was identified as having job performance problems, and as being disruptive and combative with his colleagues. Then, on or about May 17, 2018, Tripp was assigned to a new role. Tripp expressed anger that he was reassigned. Tripp then allegedly retaliated against Tesla by stealing confidential and trade secret information and disclosing it to third parties, “and by making false statements intended to harm the company.”
The situation came to a head on Thursday and Friday of last week, or June 14 and 15, 2018, when Tesla investigators interviewed Tripp regarding his misconduct. After Tripp initially stated that no misconduct had occurred, Tesla investigators confronted him with evidence to the contrary. At that point, Tripp admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s MOS and to transferring several gigabytes of confidential and proprietary Tesla data to entities outside the company. This included dozens of photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems.
Here is the full background from the lawsuit:
Tripp joined Tesla in October 2017 at the Nevada Gigafactory as a process technician, a job which Tripp later complained was not a sufficiently senior role for him. As part of his job, Tripp had access to highly sensitive information relating to, among other things, certain facets of the manufacturing process for the company’s battery modules.
Before joining Tesla, and as a condition to his continuing employment, Tripp agreed not to use or disclose Tesla’s confidential and proprietary information except in connection with his work with Tesla. This obligation is memorialized in the Employee Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement that Tripp signed electronically on October 6, 2017 (the “Proprietary Information Agreement”). In addition to his contractual obligations, Tripp owed a duty of undivided loyalty to Tesla under Nevada law and was legally required to act with good faith towards the company.
Within a few months of Tripp joining Tesla, his managers identified Tripp as having problems with job performance and at times being disruptive and combative with his colleagues. As a result of these and other issues, on or about May 17, 2018, Tripp was assigned to a new role. Tripp expressed anger that he was reassigned.
Thereafter, Tripp retaliated against Tesla by stealing confidential and trade secret information and disclosing it to third parties, and by making false statements intended to harm the company.
On June 14 and 15, 2018, Tesla investigators interviewed Tripp regarding his misconduct. After Tripp initially stated that no misconduct had occurred, Tesla investigators confronted him with evidence to the contrary. At that point, Tripp admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla’s MOS and to transferring several gigabytes of confidential and proprietary Tesla data to entities outside the company. This included dozens of photographs and a video of Tesla’s manufacturing systems.
During the interview, Tripp also admitted that he attempted to recruit additional sources inside the Gigafactory to share confidential Tesla data outside the company.
While its investigation is still in the early stages, Tesla has also discovered that Tripp authored hacking software and placed it onto the computer systems of three other individuals at the company so that confidential Tesla data could be persistently exported off its network from these other systems to unknown third parties.
Tripp also made false claims about the information he stole from Tesla. Tripp claimed that punctured battery cells had been used in some Model 3 customer vehicles even though the evidence clearly demonstrates that no punctured cells were ever used. Tripp also used the Tesla data that he exported to grossly overstate the true amount and value of “scrap” material that Tesla generated during the manufacturing process, and he falsely claimed that Tesla was delayed in bringing new manufacturing equipment online at the Gigafactory.
And the punchline:
Although Tesla’s investigation is ongoing, it has already suffered significant and continuing damages as a result of Tripp’s misconduct, which it seeks to recover through this action
In other words, Tesla now has a named and litigated scapegoat in case Q2 earnings happen to miss once again.
Full lawsuit below
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