Updated August 9, 2015
Saleen served an injunction to Canadian Frederic Lambert, a Tesla investor and enthusiast, for comments he made on his website, Reddit and other forums.
Under his Reddit username “FredTesla” and other online aliases, Lambert has been critical of the company and has made more than 1,000 comments about the company, accusing the company of scamming customers. Saleen delivered those comments in a thick binder to Lambert’s home with legal papers, intending to take the man to court for defamation.
Lambert first learned about the southern California company last year because of its Saleen Tesla, a modified Tesla Model S. He researched the company for possible investment and then posted critical comments on forums. The number of posts racked up because Lambert got into debates with online Saleen boosters.
The company claims Lambert’s comments have hurt the company financially. Lambert has volunteered his side of the story to Reddit’s sub-community, /r/teslamotors, this week.
According to Lambert’s account he published on Reddit, the legal papers claim Lambert told potential customers that, “Saleen is running something closely resembling a Ponzi scheme/pump & dump,” Lambert said.
“And you know what? I don’t know if this can have an impact on the case, but I never said that in that particular thread. Meaning the whole exhibit P-9 is a printout of the thread and it missing that particular quote.”
Saleen Automotive maintains that Lambert’s comments went beyond the bounds of open discussion on the Internet.
“This lawsuit has nothing to do with Tesla or any other opinions and comments regarding our products. Under Canadian law, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and may voice same, as long as it is not done in a defamatory fashion,” Saleen said in an email to Jalopnik. “I understand the extent of one’s freedom of speech and of opinions, but we can no longer tolerate to be the object of such defamatory comments which are not protected by freedom of speech.”
Lambert argued he is not to blame for Saleen’s troubles. He says the company’s recent drop in stock from $0.01 to $0.0006 is not due to his comments, but rather because the company has been using convertible notes, which is diluting the stock.
Saleen’s financial troubles have plagued it for a long time. According to Yahoo Finance, the company, trading with the symbol SLNN has had its price drop to a fraction of a penny ($0.0006), which is essentially zero. The company’s most recent quarterly filing, Form 10-K, to the Securities Exchange, revealed that the company is being sued by its bank for defaulting on a loan.
According to the filing, the company reported having only $21,000 cash and will require additional financing to keep its doors open.
Lambert plans to fight and has set up an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to help defray his legal costs.
Update August 9, 2015. The Director of Public Relations emailed a public statement that said the matter was settled. Lambert apparently cancelled his fundraising campaign.
The statement read:
“On July 20, 2015, Mr. Steve Saleen and Saleen Automotive, Inc., filed a Motion to Institute Proceedings for Interlocutory and Permanent Injunction against Mr. Frederic Lambert before the Superior Court of Quebec. These proceedings are predicated on defamatory comments made by Mr. Lambert on various platforms and media outlets over the course of the last 15 months.
Following the filing of such proceedings, Mr. Saleen, Saleen Automotive, Inc., on one part, and Mr. Lambert, on the other part, agreed to resolve this matter.
In order to avoid litigation, Mr. Lambert has, among other things, agreed that an order be granted against him preventing him from releasing any additional defamatory comments against Mr. Saleen and Saleen Automotive, Inc. and to withdraw all previous defamatory comments from the relevant websites.
All the parties are pleased with this resolution of their dispute.
This will be the only public statement made in connection with the said dispute by either party.
