Hyperloop One's countersuit, filed Tuesday, refutes one of the more provocative claims brought by co-founder Brogan BamBrogan in the original lawsuit: That a company executive threatened him by placing a "hangman's noose" on his chair.
The company's countersuit said that there was, in fact, no "hangman's noose," and that the anecdote overdramatizes the incident in an effort to capture media attention.
"[T]he Sham Complaint attempts to dramatize a workplace incident — a rope tied with a lasso knot, not a hangman's knot, left on the desk where BamBrogan's keeps his trademark cowboy hat — into a story about a threatening 'hangman's noose' that is tabloid fodder and fiction. BamBrogan went so far as to file a reckless request for a restraining order — part of his publicity stunt aimed to gain leverage in this litigation —and the judge in that case summarily dismissed his request in a hearing that lasted less than one minute."
Hyperloop One co-founder BamBrogan, in a suit filed last week against the company's leaders, alleged that in retaliation for informing investors about company leaders' breaches of fiduciary duty, former chief legal officer Afshin Pishevar — brother of board chair Shervin Pishevar — "strolled through Hyperloop One's office and placed a hangman's noose on BamBrogan's chair."
Afshin Pishevar allegedly left the noose on BamBrogan's desk after chair Shervin Pishevar met with several of the company's Russian investors, who had been informed by BamBrogan of the company's alleged infractions.
"Even though there was no threat of physical harm, leaving the rope was ill-considered and in poor taste, and the Company promptly terminated its former General Counsel, Afshin Pishevar, upon learning he was responsible for the stunt," the countersuit concedes.