57Bloomberg Businessweek January 27, 2020posteda dossierconnectingskabooshka
and Hothi. Itincluded information
aboutHothi’s graduatestudies and
socialmediaaccountsandnotedthat
hisbrother,GaganHothi,workedat
VolkswagenAG,a Teslacompetitor.The
accounthadnevertweetedbefore(and
hasn’tsince),sofewpeoplenoticedat
thetime,butMuskseemstohavebeenawareofit.
InlateAugust 2018 theWallStreetJournalpublisheda story
aboutthenotoriouseffortbyMusktotakeTeslaprivate,during
whichhe’dfalselyclaimedviaTwitterthathehad
“fundingsecured”fora deal.(Aspenanceforthe
tweet,Musksteppeddownaschairman,andheand
Teslapaid$20millioneachaspartofa settlement
withtheU.S.SecuritiesandExchangeCommission.)
TheJournalstorydidn’trefertoHothibyname,but
it mentionedMusk’scontentionthatshortsellers
weretryingtounderminehimandreportedthat
he’dcontactedVolkswagenCEOHerbertDiessto
askif anemployeewascriticizingTeslaundera fake
name.“Diessrepliedsayingit wastheguy’sbrother,”
MusktoldtheJournal. “That’sprettymuchit.”(Hothi
sayshisbrother,whonolongerworksforVW,had
nothing to do with his thinking on Tesla.)
After Tesla filed its restraining order against Hothi
last April, Musk responded to the July 2018 tweet that
mentioned the brothers. “This is extremely messed
up,”hetweeted. “@VW, what’s going on?” A sympathetic fan
responded to Musk, mentioning the restraining order and say-
ing that “tslaq must be one of the most insane things that’s ever
happened to a company.” Musk wrote back: “Never seen any-
thing like it. Tesla is just trying to make electric cars & solar
power for a better future for all. True, we might not succeed,
but why do they want us to fail?”
TSLAQ rallied to Hothi’s side. Lawrence Fossi, an attorney
who writes under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic, organized
a “skabooshka defense fund,” which has raised more than
$118,000 on GoFundMe. In his legal response to the restrain-
ing order, Hothi contested Tesla’s description of the incident
with the security guard. He’d driven to the factory parking lot
to ask salespeople at the adjacent showroom questions as part
of his research, he says. Two men approached his car, and
one knocked on his window. Hothi, according to the Fremont
Police Department’s report, “drove away at a slow rate of
speed” and struck an employee’s knee in a way “that did not
appear to be an intentional act.” Hothi denies that he drove
recklessly or that he intentionally hit anyone.
As for his actions while tailing the Model 3, Hothi argued
that he’d never swerved toward it, as Tesla alleged. “I took
some photos and paid attention to how this car was driving,” he
says now. “It’s not like I was tailgating.” Face to face, he chooses
his words politely and carefully. Hothi was aware, given the
cameras that come standard on the Model 3 and the extras
on the demo model he’d spotted, that Tesla would have videoofhimfollowing the car. He
calledonit toreleasethat
footage and video from
thefactory’s security cam-
eras. Tesla refused, on the
grounds that it was pro-
tectingemployeeprivacy.
Whena judgeorderedthe
companytodoso,it withdrewitslawsuitinstead.Even so,
Muskhasn’tdroppedthefight.Inanemail exchange in August
with Aaron Greenspan of PlainSite, which republishes legal
documents online and first posted the restraining order, Musk
claimed that Hothi had “almost killed Tesla employees” and
that “what was a sideswipe when Hothi hit one of our people
could easily have been a death within 6 inches of difference.”
Tesla and Musk didn’t respond to emailed questions about
the discrepancy between his account and the police report.
Fossi, the GoFundMe organizer, views the skabooshka saga
as a prime example of Musk’s worst tendencies. He’s mak-
ing statements about Hothi “after Tesla dropped the case and
refusedtoprovideanyevidence,”hesays.“He’sa nightmare
clientfora lawyer.It’sself-destructive,andit’sharmfultohis
company.”Fossicomparesit withthemorehigh-profile case
of Vernon Unsworth, the caver Musk falsely called a “pedo
guy” on Twitter. Unsworth suedMuskina Californiacourt,but
in December a jury concluded
that Musk’s tweets didn’t meet
the legal standard for defama-
tion. (Unsworth said afterward
that he’d “take it on the chin.”)
Nonetheless, the CEO getting
dragged into court to answer
for his tweets wasn’t exactly
great news for Tesla.
The company may have
abandoned its court fight with
Hothi, but Musk won in an
important way. Skabooshka
hasn’t tweeted since April,
when he thanked supporters
and wrote, “The pendencyof
Tesla’s lawsuit against me
makes it prudent for me to
say little on Twitter at pres-
ent.” The longtime aca-
demic spent his summer
interning at Muddy Waters
Capital LLC, an activist short
seller in San Francisco. (He
says his equity research
didn’t involve Tesla.) In September he flew back to Ann Arbor
to finish his dissertation. He says he’s focused on that for now,
thoughhe’sstillcontemplatinglegalactionagainstMusk and
isn’t entirelyoutofthegame.“I’mlurkingonTwitter,” he
says. “I’mmonitoring things as they unfold.” <BW>@TESLACHARTS: THERE IS NOTHING @ELONMUSK
WON’T LIE ABOUT. HE WAS NOT A FOUNDER
OF TESLA MOTORS, $TSLA CARS OFTEN ACCEL-
ERATE UNCONTROLLABLY, AUTOPILOT IS
JUNK, FSD IS VAPORWARE, SOLARCITY WAS
A BAILOUT, SOLAR ROOFS DON’T EXIST, AND
HE IS A THE GREATEST HUCKSTER OF OUR
TIME. $TSLAQ (JAN 21 2020)@SKABOOSHKA: $TSLA
RECORDING THE
“AUTONOMOUS DRIVING”
DEMO FOR ITS SO-CALLED
“AUTONOMY INVESTOR
DAY” (APR 22).
MOUNTED, TWO CAMERAS:
ONE REAR-FACING ON
THE TRUNK, ONE
INSIDE DIRECTED
TOWARDS THE STEERING
AND CENTER CONSOLE.
NOTE THE LICENSE
PLATE: MFG632779S.
A COMPANY VEHICLE
(APR 18 2019)@NEGDISCOUNTRT:$TSLA SO WHATBULLSHIT? $TSLAQ? (AUG 7 2018)A REFERENCE TO WEED) AND TWEETING HAPPENS IF MUSK WAS HIGH (“420”