Electric Vehicle Startup, Canoo, Connected to Harassment Lawsuit

After a swift rise, and only two weeks after unveiling its first electric vehicle, Canoo Inc. faces a harassment lawsuit. Christina Krause, former head of administration and communications of Canoo, and former wife of Canoo CEO Stefan Krause filed the harassment lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. 

Christina Krause alleges numerous violations, including gender and marital discrimination, violations of California’s Equal Pay Act, harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination. According to the lawsuit, the California start up’s beginnings and rapid growth stemmed directly from a “gentleman’s agreement” in Hong Kong in October 2017, less than two years before the recent reveal. Canoo, previously Evelozcity, did stem from a meeting in 2017. The Hong Kong meeting involved Stefan Krause and two other men who became the leading investors: David Li and David Stern. Around the same time as this alleged meeting took place, Krause resigned from his position as CFO of Faraday Future. Investors were previously unidentified.

Christina Krause claims she was named responsible for administrative, operational and communication functions at the company. She eventually obtained the title of In Charge of Administration and Communications. She is very clear in the lawsuit that she was involved from the very beginning, even in the securing and registering of the domain name www.evelozcity.com from her personal GoDaddy account. Yet she was not named a founder. She claims she was the only one amongst the company’s first ten employees who was not designated a founder. According to Christina, Stefan Krause advised her she was not made a founder because she did not hold a critical role in the building of a vehicle. She was offered a $140,000 annual salary with a stock option to purchase 12,000 shares of Canoo stock.

In comparison, Stefan Krause and Ulrich Kranz, currently titled as In Charge at Canoo, both received salaries of $720,000 alongside 2.5 million shares of stock. Other team members at the company from the start earn a minimum of $260,000 annually. Christina claims that her situation at the company deteriorated quickly as Stefan Krause requested that she sign a postnuptial agreement. When Christina didn’t comply, he stepped down as CEO of the company claiming he had “personal reasons.”

Christina Krause claims that as her marriage fell apart, she faced increased oversight, diminished authority in her position, harassment and intimidation, an internal investigation, and termination.

If you need to talk to someone about wrongful termination or if you need to file a wrongful termination lawsuit, get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in any one of various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.