It sounds like an obvious plot in a movie: a man working for Big Oil tries to steal secrets from an electric car company by impersonating its CEO to steal financial secrets! Except it really happened, according to a new lawsuit from Tesla Motors that claims someone pretended to be Elon Musk in a bid to get juicy inside information.
In its lawsuit, Tesla says Todd Katz was the chief financial officer of a company that works for the oil industry, Quest Integrity Group LLC, Bloomberg reports (he didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment on the lawsuit).
The company says after it disclosed its second-quarter financial results on Aug. 3, reporting a quarterly loss of about $1.06 per share, finance chief Jason Wheeler received an email from one “ElonTesla@yahoo.com,” asking for some more details on that financial data. Suspicious? Heck yeah, but not as bad as “El0nModelSexxy@hotmail.com”, right?
The complaint says the man tried to wrangle “highly confidential and proprietary Tesla business information” through the deceptive email, signing it “em”.
“Why you so cautious w Q3/4 guidance on call. What is ur best guess as to where we actually come in on q3/4 deliverables. Honest best guess. no bs,” the email read.
Tesla thinks this is all part of an oil industry attempt to undermine the company’s efforts to develop energy efficient transportation — that wouldn’t use so much gas, hence less need for oil — according to the lawsuit.
“In recent years, oil companies have spent billions of dollars on legislative efforts and campaigns aimed at blocking progress toward electric cars and other sustainable energy solutions in the United States and abroad,” Tesla said.
Tesla Accuses Executive in Lawsuit of Impersonating Musk [Bloomberg]
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