Hyperloop One to shut down after delays, sex-harass claims

Business

By Shannon Thaler

Hyperloop One — a high-speed train startup endorsed by Elon Musk that nevertheless got sidetracked with project delays and bizarre sex-harassment claims against some of its executives and backers — plans to shut down, according to a report.

Hyperloop’s workforce of about 100 — which was slashed from roughly 200 earlier this year — are being tasked with overseeing the company’s asset sales before their employment ends on Dec. 31, according to Bloomberg.

The business — based out of Las Vegas, where it has a small test track to develop its “vacuum tube” transportation system with pods moving up to 760 miles per hour — has also closed its Los Angeles office, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Hyperloop had drawn public fascination since its founding in 2014, when it vowed to modernize transportation technology with a freight that traveled to major US cities at airplane-like speeds.

In 2019, it said Hyperloop’s technology could get passengers from NYC to Washington, DC, in just 30 minutes — versus the usual 3.5 hours it takes to travel between the two hubs on an Acela train.

At the time, it also touted having a deal in the works to install the Hyperloop system between Mumbai and Pune in India, though the ambitious plans were abandoned last year.

Dubai-based logistics company DP World has backed Hyperloop since 2016, orchestrating a merger in April between Hyperloop and a shell company, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

At the time, the value of shares in most classes was written down to zero and the shareholders of the shell company became the only owners of Hyperloop, the outlet reported.

The Post has sought comment from Hyperloop and DP World.

Hyperloop’s dreams have seemed further and further for years now despite backing from Richard Branson — which had the company adopt the name Virgin Hyperloop One for a stint — and endorsements from Elon Musk.

In Hyperloop’s early days, co-founder Brogan BamBrogan once arrived at work to find a noose on his chair, according to Bloomberg.

And in 2017, its co-executive chairman Shervin Pishevar was slammed by a half-dozen sexual harassment and assault allegations, including rape at a swanky London hotel, from at least women — all of which he’s denied.

It was Pishevar’s brother, Afshin Pishevar — who overstayed his welcome as BamBrogan’s house guest while visiting from his home in Washington to join the company as general counsel — that left the noose BamBrogan discovered on his office chair, Bloomberg reported.

When Shervin Pishevar stepped away from the company in 2017 to fight off the claims against him, Branson stepped into his role, though was shortly thereafter clouded by his own sexual misconduct allegations.

Singer Antonia Jenae claimed the British billionaire stuck his face between her breasts and proceeded to “motorboat” her while at a 2010 party on the billionaire’s Necker Island in the Caribbean.

“We were by the bar and he was saying bye to everyone. He came up to me and put his face in my breasts,” she told the London Sun at the time. “He went ‘brrrrrr’ and just walked away. It was surreal, totally out of the blue.”

Jenae also alleged that Virgin’s shaggy-haired honcho begged her to go topless at the party, according to the Sun, which is owned by News Corp., the parent of The Post.

A year after the sexual misconduct claims, one of Hyperloop’s directors, Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, was arrested in Moscow on charges of fraud and embezzlement that were unrelated to his work with Hyperloop, according to Bloomberg.

At the time, Magomedov’s lawyer said he was appealing the arrest.

The startup’s remaining intellectual property will now be transferred to DP World, which also serves as the title partner of the DP World Tour, part of the new golf entity with the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf.

It’s unclear if the transaction with the shell company was an attempt to take Hyperloop public, which the futuristic company tried to do just months earlier with the help of a special purpose acquisition company backed by Shaquille O’Neal.

The deal with O’Neal’s Forest Road Acquisition Corp II would have listed Hyperloop on the New York Stock Exchange with a $600 million valuation, but the agreement fell through, raising serious doubts about whether a 300-mile freight system connecting Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburg was a realistic goal.