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Hyperloop One Team Hits Rough Patch

After Hyperloop Technologies brought litigation against four former employees for breaching non-disparagement and other employment contract clauses, the "gang of four" filed a counter suit that details their version of events.

(TNS) -- Hyperloop Technologies Inc. is seeking at least $250 million in damages from four former high-ranking employees who the company says tried to incite rebellion within the Los Angeles startup.

The firm says then-Chief Technology Officer Brogan BamBrogan and his co-conspirators knew their days at the company “were numbered” because of poor performance and erratic behavior, according to documents submitted Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

In a last-ditch attempt at grabbing power before being shoved out the door, the group launched a failed coup attempt and tried to form a competitor. BamBrogan went as far as registering Internet address hyperlooptoo.com, the documents say.

Also in what attorneys for the company call the “Gang of Four” were William Mulholland, vice president of finance; Knut Sauer, vice president of business development; and assistant general counsel David Pendergast. They’re accused of breaching non-disparagement and other employment contract clauses, along with their duty of loyalty to the company.

The filing counters a lawsuit the four men brought against the company last week. In their version of events, they were either fired or forced to resign after complaining about how top investors in the company had breached their fiduciary duty. They claimed investors’ friends and family had been overpaid for company work, including a public relations consultant whose salary was boosted while dating investor Shervin Pishevar.

Each of the dueling lawsuits accuse the rival side of greed — claims that have left a sour mood among the more than 150 employees left at Hyperloop One’s gray brick headquarters in an industrial yard along the Los Angeles River.

The company wants to develop a system for thrusting levitating pods of people and freight through tubes with minimum air resistance. No projects are set, but studies are underway about potential routes. For example, a report this month promoted by Hyperloop One suggests a $20 billion project could carry people through the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Stockholm, or about 300 miles, in 28 minutes.

Most concrete is a goal to demonstrate a test system in the Nevada desert near the end of the year. Orin Snyder, an attorney for the company, said the plan remains on track and the company is “stronger than ever.”

©2016 Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.