Tesla Is Facing US Criminal Probe Over Elon Musk Statements (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Tesla is under investigation by the Justice Department over public statements made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. The criminal probe is running alongside a previously reported civil inquiry by securities regulators. Federal prosecutors opened a fraud investigation after Musk tweeted last month that he was contemplating taking Tesla private and had "funding secured" for the deal. The tweet initially sent the company's shares higher. Tesla confirmed it has been contacted by the Justice Department. The investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of California follows a subpoena issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking information from the electric-car maker about Musk's plans to go private, which he has since abandoned. Tesla said in a statement following Bloomberg's report: "Last month, following Elon's announcement that he was considering taking the company private, Tesla received a voluntary request for documents from the DOJ and has been cooperative in responding to it. We have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any other formal process. We respect the DOJ's desire to get information about this and believe that the matter should be quickly resolved as they review the information they have received."

Comments

Elon, don't make announcements while high

[mykepredko]

It's a simple rule. Many people follow it and avoid being investigated by the DOJ.

sad...

[zlives]

the promise of clean(er) vehicle emissions does not need him fucking it up. there has been enough hate on battery tech without this douche making it worse.
why doesn't the board just fire him or something... just focus on the business.

Tesla showed what a no compromise EV would be like

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

It is unfortunate Musk gets the company into trouble.

He was prescient enough to see a Moore's law for batteries, with a 7 year period for power density and price. His prediction is coming exactly. He was charismatic enough to persuade enough VCs to fund a company that can make a no-compromise EV, not some compliance vehicle. But the company is stable now. The production hell has been debugged out. Now they are going through the delivery hell, and are talking about parts and repairs etc like a regular car company. At this point Elon is hurting more than helping Tesla.

Tesla Model 3 is the fifth best selling car by volume and the number one car by revenue in August.