Karma Automotive is suing DeLorean Motors Reimagined, alleging it stole the luxury electric vehicle company's intellectual property.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, names DeLorean Motors CEO Joost de Vries, COO Alan Yuan, Vice President Neilo Harris and Chief Marketing Officer Troy Beetz as defendants. The lawsuit also named DeLorean Motors Reimagined and Reimagined Automotive as defendants.
The suit alleges that the high-ranked executives started Reimagined Automotive while "some or all" of the defendants were still employed at Karma. According to the suit, Karma was in the process of negotiating a partnership with DeLorean Motor Co. to electrify the reinvented DeLorean vehicle when the defendants formed their new company and took confidential Karma materials. The suit alleges the defendants "actively concealed information from Karma to keep Karma from pursuing the project or from finding out what individual defendants were doing."