(Yicai Global) Jan. 30 -- Electric carmaker Faraday & Future has sued Stefan Krause, its ex-chief financial in a US federal court and his electric car startup Evelozcity Inc., charging him with illegally stealing trade secrets, 163.com reported on Jan. 30.  

The case has drawn great attention over the involvement of FF and its founder Jia Yueting, with the amount claimed possibly reaching several billions of dollars, per foreign media.

FF filed a complaint with the US Federal District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division. The trade secrets and core technologies at issue include software and hardware, batteries, motors, electronic controls, variable platform architecture, artificial intelligence and Internet of Vehicles, said an internal letter 163.com acquired. These are all key technologies the firm has amassed since its inception four years ago.

Evelozcity also illegally hired away several FF executives and technical experts, most notably Ulrich Kranz, FF's chief technical officer, the complaint asserts. Several FF staff further illegally obtained core technological secrets before their departure for later use by Evelozcity, which planned to develop a model very similar to FF's next mid-size vehicle to engage in unfair competition with the former, an insider said.

While employed at the e-automaker, Stefan Krause and Ulrich Kranz tried to squeeze Jia out by stating that the company would receive no new funding if Jia stayed on. When their plot miscarried, they secured financing from investors who had purposefully contacted them during their tenure at FF to set up a new company to ply unfair competition with it, an FF staffer said.