Tesla Inc. says a former battery factory worker who publicly criticized the company should be barred from using bankruptcy to avoid paying a $425,000 debt from a yearslong legal feud with Elon Musk, Bloomberg News reported. The company on Tuesday urged a bankruptcy judge not to let Martin Tripp off the hook after he acknowledged violating trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements. The filing is the latest twist in a dispute dating back to 2018, when Tripp anonymously told the news media that Tesla was wasting a significant amount of raw materials at its Nevada Gigafactory. That ended up getting him fired, and escalated into an exchange of insults and lawsuits with Musk and Tesla. Tripp agreed to pay $400,000 in 2020 to settle Tesla’s suit accusing him of stealing confidential data. He’d also been ordered to pay Tesla $25,000 in sanctions for posting court documents online in violation of a judge’s order. Tripp had been making payments to Tesla until late September, when he filed for bankruptcy, according to Tuesday’s filing.
