Martin Tripp, who has now been named as the Tesla saboteur has had a federal lawsuit brought against him by Tesla who  is suing Tripp for $1 million in damages.

In the suit Tesla accuses him of unlawful hacking, making false claims to the media and exporting sensitive data to third parties. It also alleges that he tried to cover his tracks by planting the code used to export the information from Tesla’s manufacturing operating system on three other computer systems, which would implicate other employees as the guilty parties.

In an interview with The Guardian Tripp claimed that he was being scapegoated for leaking safety concerns. The accused claims he leaked the information to Business Insider because nobody at the company would listen to his concerns and that Tesla was misleading investors and customers about how sustainable the electric cars are. Issues he raised included punctured batteries, excess scrap materials and manufacturing delays.

Tesla Accused of Safety Negligence and Excessive Scrappage

In the documents Tesla is accused of excess scrappage and that for every 2,500 battery packs and driving unit, an additional 1,000 pieces of “nonconforming” material is created. Half of that would be reworked and put into other car parts. The other half would become scrap.

More worryingly, according to the document, a misprogrammed automation robot in Tesla’s Gigafactory, that handles battery modules, punctured the plastic housing of battery cells and rather than scrap the damaged modules some were fixed with adhesive and put back on the manufacturing line.

Tripp explained that: “When it’s world impactful when you’re lying to the world and investors about the cars you’re producing and how sustainable you are, when you’re saying one thing and doing another, the righteous thing is for the world to know.”

Scapegoat or Saboteur?

Tesla has denied these claims and has, in turn, asserted that Tripp is a disgruntled employee who wants to get back at the company because he did not get the promotion he had hoped for and was unhappy with his reassigned role.

Tripp accused Tesla of defamation: “I’m a scapegoat because I provided information that is absolutely true. This is obscene … It feels like I have no rights as a whistleblower.” Adding that: “They’re trying to do everything they can to silence me and trying to set an example so that no one else will talk to the press.”

Currently, Tesla is under pressure to boost its production if it is to create 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of this quarter. Only last week Musk announced that 9% of the firm’s workforce would be cut as part of a restructuring plan. And earlier this month, footage of a Tesla Model S on fire emerged online after actress Mary McCormack shared it on her twitter, her husband was driving the vehicle at the time.

According to McCormack, the fire appeared out of the blue and there was no cause for it, which could potentially support Tripp’s claims that battery safety was neglected.

@Tesla This is what happened to my husband and his car today. No accident,out of the blue, in traffic on Santa Monica Blvd. Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over. And thank god my three little girls weren’t in the car with him pic.twitter.com/O4tPs5ftVo

— Mary McCormack (@marycmccormack) June 16, 2018

Furthermore, a recent fatal crash of a Tesla vehicle has raised a fresh wave of serious concern over the car’s autopilot technology. The National Transportation Board found that the car had sped up before the crash and had failed to brake or steer away.