Officially, Lotus fired CEO Dany Bahar because he misused funds and not because he was a disaster in almost every way. Unofficially, we're hearing that Lotus Cars advisory board member "Maximum" Bob Lutz is telling people the opposite in private.
Rumor has it that Lutz is actually telling people the company was looking for any excuse to get Bahar out of his contract. The fact that the CEO had apparently been using company funds to renovate his personal properties and to pay for private aircraft at a time when the company was struggling seemed to fit the bill nicely so that's what they went with.
This is important because Bahar is reportedly suing Lotus for wrongful termination.
Lutz is notoriously chatty, so it doesn't surprise me that he'd say something like this. What impact it could have on the strained Bahar-Lotus relationship isn't clear, and they could easily claim that there were abundant reasons to get rid of Bahar as CEO.
Anyone hearing the same thing?
Photo Credit: AP