floydv
Elio Addict
Did a bit of digging to help clarify the confusion:
ESG = Elio, Sankara, Glaspie = all co-founders of Paul's original company, Elio Engineering dba ESG Engineering (see http://www.esgeng.com/pdf/ESGflyer.pdf). Sankara was Hari Sankara, who apparently is Hari (Sankara) Iyer. Sound familiar? Of course it should, if you read the Offering Circular. Hari Iyer was ESG's co-founder and is now the Chief Operating Officer of Elio Motors (which explains why Hari gets the same salary as Paul). The other co-founder was Bob Glaspie, former Director of Engineering at ESG. He's now Sr. Design Engineer at Virgin Galactic (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-glaspie-14523643). He and Hari Iyer co-hold several seat mechanism patents with Paul (which apparently aren't involved in the Elio since the seats will be sourced by Lear).
Regarding who owns the intellectual property in Elio, let's turn again to the Circular, specifically page 33:
"Paul Elio and ESG Engineering
The original design for the Elio was conceived by Paul Elio and Elio Engineering, Inc., dba ESG Engineering, a company partially owned and controlled by Paul Elio. ESG Engineering transferred all rights to the design to the Company, valued at $5,000,000, as consideration for 25,000,000 shares of common stock in the Company. In addition, we assumed approximately $1,277,187 of payables that ESG Engineering had incurred on behalf of Elio Motors. At December 31, 2014 and 2013, these outstanding payables were $344,827 and $346,627, respectively. ESG Engineering transferred 12,250,000 shares of common stock in the Company to Paul Elio in November 2012 in consideration for his services in forming and organizing Elio." [Emphasis added.]
Based on the above and other available information about controlling shares, I see nothing nefarious here, nothing wrong with the Elio management holding the controlling shares (and Paul with a majority of those), and nothing to indicate ESG is controlling any sort of scheme here. As noted before, Paul himself controls about 80% of the shares in Elio, so there's no way ESG has any sort of controlling interest in Elio.
ESG = Elio, Sankara, Glaspie = all co-founders of Paul's original company, Elio Engineering dba ESG Engineering (see http://www.esgeng.com/pdf/ESGflyer.pdf). Sankara was Hari Sankara, who apparently is Hari (Sankara) Iyer. Sound familiar? Of course it should, if you read the Offering Circular. Hari Iyer was ESG's co-founder and is now the Chief Operating Officer of Elio Motors (which explains why Hari gets the same salary as Paul). The other co-founder was Bob Glaspie, former Director of Engineering at ESG. He's now Sr. Design Engineer at Virgin Galactic (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-glaspie-14523643). He and Hari Iyer co-hold several seat mechanism patents with Paul (which apparently aren't involved in the Elio since the seats will be sourced by Lear).
Regarding who owns the intellectual property in Elio, let's turn again to the Circular, specifically page 33:
"Paul Elio and ESG Engineering
The original design for the Elio was conceived by Paul Elio and Elio Engineering, Inc., dba ESG Engineering, a company partially owned and controlled by Paul Elio. ESG Engineering transferred all rights to the design to the Company, valued at $5,000,000, as consideration for 25,000,000 shares of common stock in the Company. In addition, we assumed approximately $1,277,187 of payables that ESG Engineering had incurred on behalf of Elio Motors. At December 31, 2014 and 2013, these outstanding payables were $344,827 and $346,627, respectively. ESG Engineering transferred 12,250,000 shares of common stock in the Company to Paul Elio in November 2012 in consideration for his services in forming and organizing Elio." [Emphasis added.]
Based on the above and other available information about controlling shares, I see nothing nefarious here, nothing wrong with the Elio management holding the controlling shares (and Paul with a majority of those), and nothing to indicate ESG is controlling any sort of scheme here. As noted before, Paul himself controls about 80% of the shares in Elio, so there's no way ESG has any sort of controlling interest in Elio.
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