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

Controversy is not new to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but the latest one involves a product whose idea he is alleged to have stolen from Roberto Escobar, the brother of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar. Roberto Escobar has demanded $100 million from Elon Musk to settle an alleged intellectual property theft case concerning a flamethrower idea, said a TMZ report on Thurday.

The fight came to fore after Escobar Inc. launched his own flamethrower -- a glorified propane torch -- eerily similar to what Musk`s "The Boring Company" brought in early 2018, the report said. Musk tweeted: "Its not a flamethrower, Mr Escobar", while sharing link of a media report on the subject.

According to TMZ report, 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. The Boring Company announced that it would develop its own flamethrower in January 2018.

Escobar Inc`s CEO, Olof Gustafsson, told The Next Web (TNW) that "Elon`s tweet shows that he is guilty," adding "He is basically admitting to stealing! We will settle this, I am sure. Elon knows where to find us." 

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Roberto Escobar, the founder of Escobar Inc, was scathing in his criticism of Musk. He was quoted as saying "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?" 

According to TNW report, Musk`s device called "Not A Flamethrower" is priced at $500 a piece went out of stock, and to compete against it, Ecsobar put his flamethrower on sale for $250.