`
`SINGER CASHMAN LLP
`Adam S. Cashman (Bar No. 255063)
`505 Montgomery St., Suite 1100
`San Francisco, CA 94111
`Telephone: (415) 500-6080
`Facsimile: (415) 500-6080
`acashman@singercashman.com
`
`
`Adam G. Mehes (pro hac vice forthcoming)
`Allison Huebert (pro hac vice forthcoming)
`TESLA, INC.
`1 Tesla Road
`Austin TX 78725
`Telephone: (347) 417-4940
`amehes@tesla.com
`ahuebert@tesla.com
`
`Attorneys for Plaintiff Elon Musk
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`SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
`COUNTY OF ALAMEDA – HAYWARD HALL OF JUSTICE
` CASE NO. _______________
`ELON MUSK, an individual,
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`Plaintiff,
`COMPLAINT OF PLAINTIFF ELON
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`MUSK FOR:
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`v.
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`AARON JACOB GREENSPAN, an
`individual, and THINK COMPUTER
`CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation,
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`Defendants.
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`(1) EQUITABLE INDEMNIFICATION
`(2) CONTRIBUTION
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`COMPLAINT OF DEFENDANT ELON MUSK
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`Plaintiff Elon Musk (“Plaintiff” or “Mr. Musk”) hereby respectfully submits this Complaint
`against Defendants Aaron Jacob Greenspan (“Mr. Greenspan”) and Think Computer Corporation
`(“TCC”) and alleges as follows:
`I.
`GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
`A.
`Background About Aaron Greenspan
`1.
`Defendant Mr. Greenspan is the Chief Executive Officer of Defendant TCC, which
`operates PlainSite.org, an online repository for legal pleadings from state and federal court lawsuits in
`the United States.1 Mr. Greenspan is a short seller of Tesla stock and member of the $TSLAQ anti-
`Tesla group on social media, where Mr. Greenspan goes by the Twitter handle @AaronGreenspan. Mr.
`Greenspan also posts anti-Tesla messages on social media on behalf of PlainSite.org, using the Twitter
`handle @PlainSite.
`2.
`Mr. Greenspan has made a career out of threatening and harassing individuals and
`businesses. His first major target was Facebook. Mr. Greenspan was a Harvard classmate of Mark
`Zuckerberg’s (“Mr. Zuckerberg”). After Mr. Zuckerberg’s success in founding Facebook, Mr.
`Greenspan asked Mr. Zuckerberg if Facebook would hire him as Vice President of Engineering. After
`Mr. Zuckerberg declined, Mr. Greenspan threatened to sue Facebook, claiming that he was Facebook’s
`true founder. Mr. Greenspan also petitioned the United States Trademark Office to cancel two of
`Facebook’s registered trademarks for the term “Facebook.” Mr. Greenspan also publicly claimed that
`Facebook had failed to address various privacy and security issues.2 Mr. Greenspan and Facebook
`ultimately reached a confidential settlement for a reportedly nominal amount.
`3.
`Mr. Greenspan continued with similar tactics against Random House Publishing and
`Columbia Pictures. Mr. Greenspan wrote a “memoir” regarding his purported founding of Facebook
`and asked the Doubleday division of Random House to publish it. Doubleday rejected Mr. Greenspan’s
`book, and subsequently published a different account of Facebook’s founding by Ben Mezrich titled,
`The Accidental Billionaires, which later provided the basis for the movie The Social Network. Mr.
`
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`1 https://www.plainsite.org/about/index.html.
`2 This allegation was ironic, as Mr. Greenspan’s own website had been shut down for privacy
`violations because it improperly collected Harvard university account passwords from students.
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`Greenspan responded by suing Random House, Mezrich and his company, and Columbia Pictures,
`which had released The Social Network. Mr. Greenspan asserted a variety of claims, including that Mr.
`Greenspan had been “defamed by omission” because he was not included as a character in The
`Accidental Billionaires and The Social Network. Mr. Greenspan’s claims were all dismissed with
`prejudice by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the dismissal was
`unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Greenspan v. Random House,
`Inc., 895 F. Supp. 2d 206 (D. Mass. 2012), aff’d, 2012 WL 5188792 (1st Cir. Oct. 16, 2012).
`4.
`Undeterred by his failed lawsuit against Random House, Columbia Pictures, and
`Mezrich, Mr. Greenspan became a serial litigator, filing more than 60 lawsuits (either directly or through
`organizations he controlled) against over 100 victims. Among them, Mr. Greenspan’s company, TCC,
`sued California Governor Jerry Brown, then-Attorney General of California Kamala Harris, and various
`other state government officials, because Greenspan was forced to shut down a startup of his, FaceCash,
`due to consumer protection law violations. TCC’s suit was dismissed. Think Computer Corp. v.
`Venchiarutti, No. 5:11-cv-05496-HRL (N.D. Cal. June 25, 2015), ECF No. 70.
`5.
`Additionally, Mr. Greenspan’s company, TCC, sued much of Silicon Valley, including
`Stanford University, venture capital firms such as Andreesen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield &
`Byers, and Sequoia Capital, and tech companies such as Coinbase, Facebook (again), Square, and Stripe,
`among many others, alleging that they operated without money transmitter licenses purportedly required
`by California law and asserting federal false advertising claims and various state law claims. That suit
`was dismissed as well. Think Computer Corp. v. Dwolla, Inc., 5-13-CV-02054-EJD, 2014 WL
`1266213 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 24, 2014).
`1.
`Greenspan’s Association With $TSLAQ
`6.
`In approximately 2018, Mr. Greenspan began shorting Tesla stock through both his
`personal account and through the Think Computer Corporation. Around this time, he joined the anti-
`Tesla $TSLAQ community, a community whose perverse goal is to bankrupt Tesla in order to enrich
`short sellers such as Mr. Greenspan. (“$TSLAQ” is a reference to the fact that when a company that
`trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange goes bankrupt, a “Q” is added to the end of its stock ticker
`symbol.)
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`COMPLAINT OF DEFENDANT ELON MUSK
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`7.
`To further Mr. Greenspan’s and $TSLAQ’s short-selling efforts, Mr. Greenspan again
`turned to litigation. On May 20, 2020, Mr. Greenspan, proceeding pro se, sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and
`Tesla Model 3 owner Omar Qazi for defamation and various other claims. This suit was dismissed in
`full. Greenspan v. Qazi, et. al., 20-cv-03426-JD (N.D. Cal. May 19, 2022).
`8.
`Additionally, as part of his coordinated campaign to drive down the value of Tesla stock,
`Mr. Greenspan frequently communicated with other short seller members of the $TSLAQ community,
`including Lawrence Fossi and Randeep Hothi. Mr. Fossi, who operated under the Twitter handle
`@MontanaSkeptic, and Mr. Hothi, who operated under the Twitter handle @Skabooshka, were both
`members of the $TSLAQ “Shorty Ground Force,” a group whose purpose was to create “fear,
`uncertainty, and doubt,” or “FUD,” surrounding Tesla, in order to drive down Tesla stock prices and
`thus increase the profits associated with their short positions.
`9.
`In April 2019, Tesla obtained a restraining order against Mr. Hothi in response to his
`repeated trespassing on Tesla property, including a recent incident where Mr. Hothi hit a Tesla security
`guard with his car before fleeing the scene. Mr. Greenspan reached out to Mr. Hothi and recommended
`that he retain plaintiff lawyer Gill Sperlein and his fellow $TSLAQ member, Mr. Fossi, to defend Mr.
`Hothi in the restraining order proceedings.
`10. Mr. Hothi subsequently retained Mr. Fossi and Mr. Sperlein as defense counsel. On
`information and belief, Mr. Hothi’s legal fees are being paid for by other members of $TSLAQ.
`B. Mr. Greenspan’s Publication of the Allegedly Defamatory Comments
`11.
`On August 7, 2019, Mr. Greenspan sent multiple emails to Mr. Musk and the members of
`Tesla’s Board of Directors seeking information about Mr. Musk and Tesla to further his short-selling.
`Some of Mr. Greenspan’s emails copied Mr. Fossi.
`12.
`Following these initial emails, Mr. Greenspan emailed Mr. Musk alone. In that email to
`Mr. Musk, Mr. Greenspan criticized Tesla’s “treat[ment]” of various individuals, including, among
`others, Mr. Hothi, who had been spying on Tesla by, among other things, repeatedly trespassing and
`illegally placing hidden cameras on Tesla’s property, and hitting a Tesla security guard with his vehicle
`before fleeing the scene.
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`13. Mr. Greenspan defended Mr. Hothi’s illicit attempts to obtain confidential Tesla
`information. In Mr. Greenspan’s view, Mr. Hothi was merely “interested in your factory output
`precisely because you weren’t being open at all.” Even so, Mr. Greenspan admitted that Mr. Musk
`“may have a different perspective” with regard to Mr. Hothi.
`14. Mr. Musk responded to Mr. Greenspan privately (and truthfully), noting that, “as for the
`people you mention below, they have actively harassed and, in the case of Hothi, almost killed Tesla
`employees. What was a sideswipe when Hothi hit one of our people could easily have been a death
`with 6 inches of difference.”
`15. Mr. Greenspan responded to Mr. Musk, saying that “you’ll have to do better than trying
`to pin an almost-but-not-even-close murder on [Mr. Hothi]” and that “one of your vehicles could kill
`someone with 6 inches of difference, if, for example, there was a sudden acceleration event. Or a mis-
`reading of a lane marking.”
`16.
`Shortly after receipt of Mr. Musk’s email, Mr. Greenspan forwarded the email exchange
`to Mr. Hothi’s attorney, Mr. Fossi. Mr. Fossi then forwarded the correspondence to his co-counsel Gill
`Sperlein, both of whom represented Mr. Hothi at the time.
`17.
`On information and belief, Mr. Fossi also forwarded the allegedly defamatory
`correspondence to, and discussed it with, his client, Mr. Hothi.
`18.
`On information and belief, despite being nearly immediately informed of Mr. Musk’s
`private statement after it was made and before it was publicized, neither Mr. Hothi nor his attorneys
`made any attempt to disclaim the truth of Mr. Musk’s statement to Mr. Greenspan, or to request that Mr.
`Greenspan refrain from publishing it further.
`19.
`Instead, on August 8, 2019, the day after Mr. Greenspan forwarded the allegedly
`defamatory email to Mr. Hothi’s counsel, Mr. Greenspan published his email exchange with Mr. Musk
`regarding Mr. Hothi, on PlainSite.org, the website that Mr. Greenspan operates through TCC. See
`Exhibits 1, 2, available at https://www.plainsite.org/documents/hwau8/email-conversation-between-
`plainsite-founder-aaron-greenspan-and-tesla-ceo-elon-musk/.
`20. Mr. Greenspan also turned to Twitter to tweet about his “robust e-mail exchange” with
`Mr. Musk. See Exhibit 3. Mr. Greenspan’s tweet linked to the PlainSite.org page containing the email
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`exchange between Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Musk. Id. Moreover, Mr. Greenspan highlighted in
`particular the portion of the email exchange that concerned Mr. Hothi. Whereas Mr. Musk had referred
`to Mr. Hothi as having “sideswipe[d]” a Tesla employee and “almost killed” them as a result, Mr.
`Greenspan asserted on Twitter in an inflammatory manner that Mr. Musk “needs to explain how he can
`equate Randeep Hothi with murder.” Compare Exhibit 2 (email exchange), with Exhibit 3 (tweet from
`Mr. Greenspan).
`21.
`On information and belief, Mr. Greenspan did not engage in any due diligence regarding
`the statements concerning Mr. Hothi that Mr. Greenspan published on PlainSite.org and Twitter.
`Instead, Mr. Greenspan acted with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity of those statements.
`22. Moreover, on information and belief, Mr. Greenspan acted with actual malice because,
`among other reasons, he caused Mr. Musk’s statement to be publicized precisely in order to help support
`Mr. Hothi’s claim for reputational damages in response to Mr. Musk’s initial private, and true,
`statement.
`23.
`Indeed, Mr. Greenspan did not publicize Mr. Musk’s private email via PlainSite.org or
`Twitter until after having first communicated with Mr. Hothi’s counsel.
`24.
`According to Mr. Hothi, Mr. Greenspan’s publication of his email conversation with Mr.
`Musk received attention on Twitter. Mr. Hothi claims that Mr. Greenspan’s “Twitter postings of
`correspondence with Musk” received “more than 25,000 ‘impressions’ (views by other Twitter users)”
`on the day they were posted, “more than 150,000 impressions” the following day, and “another 240,000
`impressions” over the next 28 days. Pl.’s Compl. ¶ 37, Hothi v. Musk, No. RG20069852 (Cal. Sup. Ct.
`Alameda Cnty. filed Aug. 4, 2020) (the “Hothi Litigation”). According to Mr. Hothi, Mr. Greenspan’s
`Twitter posts “prompted an onslaught of hateful Twitter response[s]” and accusations against Mr. Hothi.
`Id. ¶ 38.
`25. Mr. Greenspan thus recklessly—indeed, deliberately—laid the foundation for Mr. Hothi’s
`manufactured defamation claims against Mr. Musk in an attempt to tarnish Mr. Musk’s reputation. Mr.
`Greenspan should be held to account for his actions.
`II.
`PARTIES AND VENUE
`26.
`Plaintiff Mr. Musk is the Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”).
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`27.
`Defendant Mr. Greenspan is the Chief Executive Officer of Defendant TCC. On
`information and belief, Mr. Greenspan resides in Mountain View, CA.
`28.
`Defendant TCC is incorporated in Delaware and, on information and belief, has its
`principal place of business in Mountain View, CA. Through TCC, Mr. Greenspan operates
`PlainSite.org. On information and belief, Mr. Greenspan sustains PlainSite.org’s operations through
`funding from Mr. Greenspan’s short-selling, donations from other short sellers, and vexatious lawsuits
`that Mr. Greenspan has filed against various corporations.
`29.
`This Court has jurisdiction over the Defendants because they are residents of and are
`actively conducting business in the State of California.
`30. Mr. Hothi alleges that the incidents giving rise to this litigation occurred in this
`jurisdiction, and that this Court is the proper venue for this action because the harm that Mr. Hothi
`allegedly incurred occurred in this jurisdiction.
`FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION
`Equitable Indemnity
`(As Against All Defendants)
`31.
`Plaintiff refers to and incorporates herein by reference each and every allegation
`contained in paragraph 1 through 30 of this pleading as though fully set forth herein.
`32.
`In equity and good conscience, if Mr. Hothi recovers against Plaintiff in the Hothi
`Litigation, whether by judgment rendered against, or settlement with, the Plaintiff, then Plaintiff is
`entitled to equitable indemnity, apportionment of liability, and contribution among and from each of
`Defendants Mr. Greenspan and TCC, according to their respective fault, on a comparative fault basis,
`for the injuries and damages allegedly sustained by Mr. Hothi, if any, in an amount equal to their
`respective liabilities, if any, as so apportioned.
`33.
`Plaintiff expressly denies the allegations in Mr. Hothi’s Complaint in the Hothi
`Litigation. However, should Plaintiff nevertheless be found liable to Mr. Hothi on the cause of action
`asserted in Mr. Hothi’s Complaint or any other alleged cause of action with respect to the allegations in
`Mr. Hothi’s Complaint, the alleged acts and/or omissions of Plaintiff were unintentional, secondary, the
`product of reasonable care, and not reasonably foreseeable to have caused any harm to Mr. Hothi, while
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`those of Defendants Mr. Greenspan and TCC were active, primary, negligent, conducted with actual
`malice, and superseding. As a direct, proximate, and foreseeable result of Defendants’ conduct,
`Plaintiff is entitled to total or partial equitable indemnity from any and all liability that may be adjudged
`against Plaintiff in the Hothi Litigation.
`SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION
`Contribution
`(As Against All Defendants)
`34.
`Plaintiff refers to and incorporates herein by reference each and every allegation
`contained in paragraph 1 through 33 of this pleading as though fully set forth herein.
`35.
`Plaintiff has not intentionally injured Mr. Hothi and in no event shall be liable for more
`than his share, if any, of any judgment attributable to Plaintiff.
`36.
`Plaintiff is entitled to contribution from Defendants Mr. Greenspan and TCC for the
`injuries and damages allegedly sustained by Mr. Hothi, if any, as a result of any judgment against or
`settlement with Plaintiff.
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`PRAYER FOR RELIEF
`WHEREFORE, Plaintiff requests a jury trial and prays for judgment as follows:
`1.
`For an Order of the Court declaring the rights of Plaintiff to equitable indemnification
`and contribution from Defendants, and each of them, and in regard to all matters alleged in the pleadings
`to this action;
`2.
`For an Order of the Court determining the comparative degree of fault, if any, for each
`party and the portion of their respective responsibility, if any, for Mr. Hothi’s alleged damages;
`3.
`That Defendant is entitled to interest at the legal rate on the sums to be determined;
`4.
`That Defendant is entitled to all costs of suit, including attorneys’ fees incurred herein;
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`and
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`//
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`For such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper.
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`Date: February 24, 2023
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`Respectfully submitted,
`SINGER CASHMAN LLP
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`By:
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`SINGER CASHMAN LLP
`Adam S. Cashman (Bar No. 255063)
`505 Montgomery St., Suite 1100
`San Francisco, CA 94111
`Telephone: (415) 500-6080
`Facsimile: (415) 500-6080
`acashman@singercashman.com
`
`
`Adam G. Mehes (pro hac vice forthcoming)
`Allison Huebert (pro hac vice forthcoming)
`TESLA, INC.
`1 Tesla Road
`Austin TX 78725
`Telephone: (347) 417-4940
`amehes@tesla.com
`ahuebert@tesla.com
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`Attorneys for Plaintiff Elon Musk
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