So this is a bit of a complicated situation, but I'll try to summarize.<p>I worked for a startup in the Sacramento area about 4 years ago. The employers were absolutely awful to their employees. I personally had several workplace violations (unpaid expenses, asked to clock out and work, lack of medical accommodations, etc). During this time, I was forced into working on a social media startup they founded.<p>I was given a preliminary equity letter in my time there -- but they hadn't setup all the actual legal for dispersing shares. The document clearly states I had 1 year vested in the startup, though.<p>Fast forward about a year after; I was put on indefinite unpaid suspension -- and I literally had no choice to quit. I was so underpaid, I couldn't even afford a week of no pay.<p>After quitting; I tried to hire a lawyer to sue for workplace violations; but explicitly did not pursue the equity because I thought the startup part of it had died out (I was one of two engineers; the other who quit shortly after I did).<p>Today, I found out that the project is still very much alive and has raised over $1 million in crowd sourced fundraising and is seeking another 4 million.<p>I never received any formal outreach from the company, company legal counsel, or any of the founders. In fact, I was quite intimidated from pursuing even my workplace violation at the time because the CEO and COO both, on separate occasions, called me after my employment ended with them and issued me death threats over the phone -- for which I filed police reports n.<p>Given that the CEO and COO used intimidation tactics and did not properly reach out any point on my ability to exercise my equity; do I have any leg to stand on in this situation -- or is the fact that this is from around 3 years ago going to have statues bite me in the ass?