A couple of weeks ago, Tesla Inc hired Washington D.C’s Dane Butswinkas, a trial lawyer, as the company’s general counsel.
Indeed, the electric car manufacturer made the appointment in October.
Steered by Elon Musk, Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer, the company hired the services of Butswinkas to provide direction in the settlement of a case with the U.S, Securities Exchange Commission, as per the report made by Bloomberg the same month.
Tesla has decided to seek the services of a new general counsel
Massive Fines for CEO and Company
For the case to be settled, Tesla and Musk had to each pay $20 million in fines. The fines in question had emerged from the August posts that the CEO had made on Twitter regarding privatization of the company.
That being said, Butswinkas replaced Todd Maron who was initially at Tesla, though it’s not clear whether Butswinkas will be relinquishing his position as chairman of Williams & Connolly, a major law firm based in Washington.
Additionally, Maron also served as Musk’s lawyer during his divorce proceedings, and had also served as part of the legal department for Tesla since 2013.
In a statement to the press, Butswinkas said that he was pleased with the given opportunity and stated that Tesla was a unique company, and that their mission was vital for the future of this planet.
Additionally, the company is looking to have a strong legal department in case of any upcoming legal woes
A Series of Legal Woes
After facing stern discipline form the SEC lawsuit that was slapped on Musk and Tesla for the alleged commitment of fraud, the company has also had a myriad of legal issues thrown its way regarding the August 7th tweet made by Musk.
In turn, the company, together with Musk, have faced a series of legal actions taken against them.
For example, the company, as well as Musk, were also under investigation by the Justice Department in which Musk was put to the floor regarding comments he had made that he had secured funding for the privatization of Tesla at $420 a share.
That being said, the company has faced a myriad of legal issues since the August 7th tweet by Musk
Securities Exchange Commission Lawsuit
That being said, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against the company in September, but later made an agreement with Tesla and Musk a few days later, in which both parties had to pay $20 million in terms of fines for the alleged fraud.
Additionally, the company then faced a proposed class-action lawsuit that was filed by the Andrew Left of Citron Research, which claimed that Musk and Tesla had tampered with the stock price by providing misleading and false information within their tweets.
With this in mind, here are some other lawsuits, complaints, and investigations that have troubled the company throughout the year.
NTSB and NHTSA have made numerous investigations on crashes pertaining to Tesla vehicles during the use of Autopilot factors.
Moreover, OHSA has launched multiple investigations regarding worker injuries and safety at Tesla factories.
Additionally, in another lawsuit, Adam Williams, a former manager at Tesla made claims that the company had demoted him, then proceeded to fire him after he had made a complaint that the company had sold used cars to certain customers without giving the said customers a heads up.
Lawsuits With an Interesting Twist to Them
In addition to that, Martin Tripp, who was a former technician at Tesla, made a whistleblower complaint to the SEC stating that the company had misinterpreted its rate of battery and vehicle production, and in the process, had used flawed materials when manufacturing the car batteries.
If that’s not enough, Tesla then fired and sued Tripp on charges that he had surfaced controversial company information on the path of engaging in media sabotage.
That being said, Tripp has opted to sue the company on terms of defamation.
Another major lawsuit that Tesla faced was by a security employee by the name of Karl Hansen, who filed a whistleblower complaint to the SEC stating that Tesla had made several cover-ups regarding narcotics and theft tracking in one of its battery plants based in Sparks, Nevada.
Last but not least, Marcus Vaughn, a former employee at Tesla, filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, stating that the company was ignoring its employees of black ethnicity, as well as increased reports of rampant racism in the Tesla offices based in California.
When the company made an attempt to turn the case into an arbitration, the company’s request was denied back in June.
