A Tesla whistleblower has slammed the world’s richest man Elon Musk as “pure evil” and wants to take him on in court. The former Tesla employee and engineer Cristina Balan said she lost her job after raising safety concerns.
Balan said she expressed worries about an alleged design flaw that could affect braking in a Tesla car. A panel of judges in California reversed a previous decision to dismiss her defamation claim against Tesla on Thursday.
“I started this lawsuit to prove my innocence and to prove how vindictive this monster is,” Balan said to Times Radio. “He is pure evil."
Balan once had her initials engraved into the batteries in the Tesla Model S. But claims she was later told to resign when she told Musk in 2014 that floor mats underneath some of the pedals were curling.
Balan claimed Musk ordered his employees to email him if they had any issues but "90% of those who did got fired soon after". When she had her query listened to Balan said she was “forced” to resign by the HR and legal departments, the Express reported.
She said: "They forced me to resign. They told me that if I'm not resigning on the spot, they will deport my entire team, because the entire Tesla team, the entire interior team was backing me up.
“Tesla's plan and the legal department's plan was to convince the entire team...
it made false statements on customs forms to avoid paying tariffs on some imports from China, rejecting the company's argument that the Tariff Act leaves no room to invoke the False Claims Act. . ....