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A man who says he was the chief financial officer for a West Lafayette artificial intelligence company is suing the firm and its founders after they allegedly denied he was part of the business and failed to compensate him for his work.
Scott Moore, who filed the lawsuit last week in Indiana Commercial Court in Marion County, says he has been serving as Blue Wave AI Labs’ CFO since April 2019, when founder Tom Gruenwald and Gina Pattermann Gruenwald asked him to take on the role.
Gruenwald, who is the company’s chief operating officer, said he has been advised by attorneys not to discuss the case. Pattermann Gruenwald is the CEO of Blue Wave, which builds artificial intelligence to support the nuclear energy industry.
Moore’s complaint says that as CFO he was in charge of contacting potential investors for the company and promoting its investment prospects. He also engages with current and potential customers and other members of the Indiana economic community.
In June 2019, shortly after accepting the CFO position, Tom Gruenwald and Moore agreed that Moore would receive 3% equity in the company, vesting 1% each year for three years until fully vested, the complaint alleges.
Gruenwald confirmed the agreement via email, according to the lawsuit.
By 2023, after Moore’s 3% had fully vested, the Gruenwalds allegedly began excluding him from the company’s activities, including discontinuing his Blue Wave email address without warning. The complaint says that in 2024 Moore asked Tom Gruenwald about upcoming board meetings and the status of his equity in Blue Wave, and Gruenwald responded that Moore had “no communication with Blue Wave and performed no duties.”
But Moore says both Gruenwald and Pattermann Gruenwald worked with Moore in his official capacities with the company.
For example, he says In June 2019, Gruenwald and Moore traveled to Evansville together to meet with two potential investors. There, Gruenwald presented himself as the company’s COO and Moore presented himself as the company’s CFO.
Later, Moore finalized the investments with the men they met with, which Gruenwald confirmed via email, according to the lawsuit.
And in November 2019, Moore says, he was nominated for a position on Blue Wave’s board of managers and elected as the company’s treasurer.
Pattermann Gruenwald was at the meeting and did not object, the complaint says. She also voted in favor of Moore joining the board of managers and voted to elect him as an officer of the company, the lawsuit states.
Aside from a $5,000 de minimis payment in November 2019, Moore says he has not received a penny for his work with the company.
He is suing the company and the Gruenwalds for violating Indiana Uniform Securities Act under Indiana Code Section 23-19-5-1, which states that it’s unlawful for a person to engage “in an act, practice, or course of business that operated as a fraud or deceit.”
Moore is also suing for breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment.
He is seeking damages in the amount equivalent to the value of the 3% equity and all other appropriate relief. The lawsuit does not estimate the value of the equity.
The case is Scott Moore v. Blue Wave AI Labs a/k/a Blue Wave Capital and Consulting LLC, J. Thomas Gruenwald, Gina Pattermann Gruenwald, 49D01-2410-PL-049441.
Moore’s attorneys are Ann O’Connor McCready, Christina Walsh and Luke Wiese of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. No attorney is listed yet for the Gruenwalds.
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