Ex-Tesla employee Martin Tripp has a problem. A big and expensive problem. As first reported by Inside EVs, the alleged saboteur (or is he a whistleblower?) has started a GoFundMe page seeking to raise $500,000 for his upcoming legal defense, likely travel expenses, and even a countersuit. As we recently learned, Tripp was a process technician at Tesla's Gigafactory before he was fired for transferring several gigabytes of company data to outside entities, including competitors, through code he allegedly wrote.

In addition, Tesla is accusing Tripp of making false statements to the media. Yeah, Tripp clearly has a problem. Musk is concerned the exported information will find its way (if it hasn't already) into the hands of short-sellers, traditional automakers, and Big Oil who will examine it with a microscope looking for anything damaging – or something they can twist to make it appear damaging. But Tripp maintains he's a corporate whistleblower, claiming Musk lied to investors and the general public regarding battery waste, production inconsistencies, and unsafe batteries and modules. It's all really one big mess and it's likely to get even uglier. Here's an excerpt from Tripp's GoFundMe page:

"I'm originally from a small town in Northern Michigan, served four years in the US Navy, worked many electronics jobs and finally accepting Tesla's mission to "Accelerate the World's transition to sustainable energy"...I am raising these funds for myself, to support counsel for this lawsuit as well as a countersuit. 6/19/18 I was fired by Tesla for providing disturbing information to the media in regards to what I (and many others) believe to be extremely excessive amounts of scrap/waste material, unsafe batteries/modules, inconsistencies in how scrap/materials are reported internally, and inconsistencies in numbers of cars produced as told by Elon Musk to investors and the general public.

Also, the amount of waste battery material not being recycled! 6/20/18 I woke up to this huge lawsuit. Tesla and Elon are much more powerful than I could ever be. They have already intimidated me, belittled, and lied about me. They have defamed me, and continue to tell complete fabricated lies about me. They have gone so far as to lie about me threatening the Gigafactory as well. For all of this, I want Tesla, and even more specifically Elon to pay; not only for what they have done to me, but for what they are doing to the world." As of this writing, the GoFundMe page has received a total of $6,607.