One of the founders of Tesla Inc TSLA says Elon Musk is violating a non-disparagement agreement by criticizing him on a podcast.
Martin Eberhard, one of Tesla's founders and its first CEO, "is literally the worst person I've ever worked with," Musk said on a recent episode of The Third Row Tesla Podcast during a discussion of the early days of Tesla. And, noting how many difficult people he's worked with, that's not easy, Musk said.
Eberhard, who has also been publicly critical of Musk in the past, told Business Insider that Musk's critical comments violate an agreement.
"This podcast, along with Musk's recent attacks against me on Twitter, are absolute breaches of his and Tesla's mutual non-disparagement agreements with me," Eberhard told the publication.
Rocky History With Eberhard, Musk
Eberhard founded Tesla with Marc Tarpenning, and Musk as chairman. He served as CEO until 2007, when he was removed after an audit showed he had been providing fraudulent financial information to the Tesla board and investors and directing other employees to lie to investors.
The two have feuded publicly off and on for years.
Musk tweeted last summer that "Tesla is alive in spite of Eberhard, but he seeks credit constantly & fools give it him," but later deleted the tweet.
Eberhard acknowledged in an article last year that he's "not a huge fan," of Musk, and once sued Musk for libel though that lawsuit was dropped in 2009.
Musk's most recent remarks on the podcast were part of a discussion of the difficulties during the early history of Tesla, which was rife with personal disagreements and rivalries.
"Tesla has so much drama," Musk said.
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