On Tuesday, Mr BamBrogan filed an explosive lawsuit against fellow co-founder Shervin Pishevar, three other company leaders and Hyperloop One that may sink the already fragile company. The lawsuit highlights simmering tensions between the company’s technologists (like Mr BamBrogan, a former SpaceX engineer) and what the claim calls the ‘money men’ of the organisation – investors and finance-side experts like Mr Pishevar. After exiting the company suddenly and without explanation last month, Mr BamBrogan has levelled a long lost of allegations against his former colleagues including breaches of fiduciary duty, violating labour laws, wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and assault.

Violence and humiliation

Some of the accusations brought by Mr BamBrogan are so sensational that they’ll likely be very hard for Hyperloop One to shake off. In an incident captured on CCTV, chief legal officer Afshin Pishevar (the brother of co-founder Shervin Pishevar) can be seen placing a ‘hangman’s noose’ on Mr BamBrogan’s office chair, reportedly in retaliation to Mr BamBrogan’s decision not to attend an investor meeting in Moscow. Mr BamBrogan has also filed a restraining order against Afshin Pishevar and claimed that nepotism may have played a role in his original hiring. In another dramatic account, Mr BamBrogan claims that former Hyperloop One assistant general counsel David Pendergast was fired in front of his wife and children by chief executive Rob Lloyd.

Failed coup

Representing Hyperloop One, Gibson Dunn lawyer Orin Snyder has called Mr BamBrogan’s lawsuit ‘unfortunate and delusional,’ dismissing the allegations made against the company’s leadership and promising a ‘swift and potent legal response.’ According to Mr Snyder, Mr BamBrogan left Hyperloop One after a failed attempt to seize the reins of the company. ‘These employees tried to stage a coup and failed,’ he told the Wall Street Journal.

Sources: Wall Street Journal; The Verge; Wired