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Former engineer Christina Balan said she was fired from Tesla after voicing safety concerns. Her defamation case was earlier dismissed, but was later allowed by a court.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Photo Credits: X)
Tesla whistleblower Christina Balan slammed the company’s owner and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, calling him “pure evil” and claiming that she was fired from the automobile company after raising safety concerns.
This came after a panel of judges in California reversed a previous decision to dismiss Balan’s defamation claim against Tesla on Thursday, according to BBC. Balan said she intends to sue Musk over her alleged firing from the company.
Balan said she had expressed concerns over an alleged design flaw involving curled floor mats beneath the pedals, which she said could affect the braking in a Tesla vehicle. She worked for the Tesla Model S. The engineer was once so prominent at Tesla that her initials were engraved on the batteries inside Model S vehicles, according to BBC.
However, after voicing her concerns, Balan said managers rebuffed her concerns, became hostile, and she lost her job. In 2014, she was allegedly forced by the HR and legal departments to leave her position. She said Musk ordered his employees to email him if they had any issues but 90% of those who did were soon fired from the company.
“They forced me to resign. They told me that if I’m not resigning on the spot, they will deport my entire team, because the entire Tesla team, the entire interior team was backing me up,” she said, adding that Tesla had planned to convince her team and Balan herself the close an internal investigation to fix a “serious safety issue”.
Tesla’s Response To Balan’s Claims
Since she left the company, Tesla said Balan used its resources for a “secret project” – which could amount to potential embezzlement if true. However, Balan rejected the claims and brought a defamation case against Tesla in 2019. She has already prevailed in a wrongful dismissal case against Tesla.
Balan also said she had emailed Musk about “hundreds of defects per car” and that “we are sending the cars out like that, knowing how many”. Her defamation claim against Tesla was dismissed until a California judge reopened her case and ruled in her favour.
“I started this lawsuit to prove my innocence and to prove how vindictive this monster is,” Balan told Times Radio. “He is pure evil.”
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Court gave her another chance to continue with her defamation lawsuit. However, a contract signed by Balan while working for Tesla could delay the case as any future legal proceedings may need to go through an arbitration process.
Balan also has stage-3B breast cancer in remission and said her biggest fear is that she may not live to see her day in court.
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
