Flamethrower row: Escobar’s brother demands $100 mn from Musk

San Francisco, July 12 (IANS) Roberto Escobar, the brother of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, has demanded $100 million from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to settle an alleged intellectual property theft case concerning a flamethrower idea.

The fight came into the limelight after Escobar Inc. launched his own flamethrower -- a glorified propane torch -- eerily similar to what Musk's "The Boring Company" brought in early 2018, TMZ reported on Thursday.

Sharing link of a media report on the subject, Musk tweeted: "Its not a flamethrower, Mr Escobar".

According to TMZ, an engineer associated with Musk paid a visit to Escoba''s business compound in 2017, during which Escobar allegedly discussed developing a "toy flamethrower" with the engineer. In January 2018, The Boring Company announced it would develop its own flamethrower.

Escobar Inc.'s CEO, Olof Gustafsson, told The Next Web (TNW) that "Elon's tweet shows that he is guilty."

"He is basically admitting to stealing! We will settle this, I am sure. Elon knows where to find us," Gustafsson was quoted as saying.

Roberto Escobar, the founder of Escobar Inc., was scathing in his criticism of Musk.

"Elon, we both know you stole from me, I am OK to settle this right now for $100 million. Tesla shares is OK or cash. I will win in court, and you will lose more than $100 million. Maybe I will make myself new Tesla CEO with the courts?" Escobar was quoted as saying.

Called "Not A Flamethrower," Musk's device priced $500 a piece went out of stock. To compete with Musk's product, Ecsobar put his flamethrower on sale for $250, TNW reported.