Tesla GC Craig Harding
Tesla Motors is a California company that makes high-performance electric cars that have become a status symbol among the entrepreneur set. The last few months have been financially dicey, so Elon Musk, the company’s lead investor, stepped in as CEO late last year. For those who don’t recognize the name, Musk made hundreds of millions as a co-founder of PayPal, and has had a number of other successful startups and investments.
Musk has a real bee in his bonnet about company information being leaked (much like new Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz). In November, he brought in an outside consultant to track down the person who had leaked the company’s financial statements. After searching through email archives and having fingerprints taken off of printouts, he identified R&D Director Peng Zhou as the source of the leak. Musk forced Zhou to issue a public apology, then fired him.
Musk’s latest scheme was to send an email to all employees asking them to sign new NDAs. He tweaked each version (some said “I’m” others said “I am” and so on) so that when it was inevitably leaked to the media, he could identify the source based on the tweaks.
The epic fail, after the jump.How could such a brilliant plan go wrong? As Valleywag reports,
Musk did not even let his executives in on the plan. That’s where the scheme went hilariously wrong.
Hapless general counsel Craig Harding [(pictured)], who’s overseen several legal setbacks for the company, forwarded his own personalized copy along with the agreement. As a result, everyone at Tesla had a copy of Harding’s version to compare to their own, making Musk’s scheme plain to see — and giving them a version that was safe to leak.
“What was surprising was that Elon failed to mention the entrapment to his executive team,” says our tipster. “When they learned of the scheme, unhappiness ensued. Isn’t trust a great thing?”
Can you guess what happened next? That’s right — the memo made its way to Valleywag. We don’t make a habit of disclosing our sources, but it’s safe to say this leak came courtesy of Tesla’s top lawyer. Thanks, Craig!
Harding (Duke BA, Vanderbilt JD) has been inhouse at a number of other California companies. He was admitted to the bar in California in 1994. Valleywag calls him “hapless” because (aside from the instant slipup), they mistakenly thought he wasn’t doing well with the ladies.
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