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Tesla Is Suing An Oil-Company Executive For Impersonating Elon Musk (businessinsider.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Tesla is suing an oil executive under suspicion of impersonating Elon Musk to dig up confidential financial information from the company, Forbes reported on Wednesday. The lawsuit, reportedly filed Wednesday in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, claimed that Todd Katz, the chief financial officer for Quest Integrity Group, emailed Tesla's chief financial officer using a similar email address as Musk's looking to gain information that wasn't disclosed in an earnings call with investors. Quest Integrity Group has partnerships with BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, the Forbes report said. According to the lawsuit, Katz used "elontesla@yahoo.com" to send an email to Tesla CFO Jason Wheeler asking about the company's sales and financial projections. The email named in the suit reads: "why you so cautious w Q3/4 gm guidance on call? also what are your thoughts on disclosing M3 res#? Pros/cons from ir pov? what is your best guess as to where we actually come in on q3/4 deliverables. honest guess? no bs. thx 4 hard work prepping 4 today. em." Tesla is seeking "undisclosed financial compensation," as well as compensation for the cost of the investigation and legal fees, according to Forbes.
From the complaint, the lawsuit is actually for:
1. Violation of California Penal Code 528.5 (which seems to allow any person damaged by impersonation to sue, not just the one impersonated).
2. Unlawful, deceptive, and unfair business acts and practices in violation of California Business & Professions Code 17200.
>while whispering conspiracy theories about scientists being in cohorts with the reds
That one's been happening for ages. Ayn Rand fervently believed, and publicly claimed, that all research indicating a link between smoking and lung cancer was a communist plot. She died of smoking-induced lung-cancer and maintained her refusal to accept the science even on her deathbed.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Where's the relevance here ?
The two cases literally have nothing in common.
The first is a criminal case. The second a civil case. That is: completely different standards of evidence and procedures.
The first is in federal court under federal law.
The second is in California state court under California state laws.
The only thing the two cases have in common is they involve somebody impersonating somebody else - that is not ipso facto a crime or a cause for civil action. If it was the entire cast of Saturday Night Live would be in jail or getting sued every week.
This particular case violated California state laws since
1) the impersonation caused actual harm
2) It falls under California's law against deceptive business practises.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *