Tesla faces a deepening probe on whether he made a mistake in the production figures
Tesla faces a deepening probe on whether he made a mistake in the production figures
With a new civil fraud agreement now behind it, it faces a new legal problem: an ever deeper criminal investigation.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation are examining whether Tesla presented misinformation about the production of its Model 3 sedans and cheated investors about the company's business in early 2017, according to people familiar with the matter.
The action in the criminal investigation, headed by the office of the lawyer of the EE. UU In San Francisco, it intensified in recent weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission settled separate civil charges with Tesla and Executive Director Elon Musk, the people said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk will speak in June.
Photo:
Chris Carlson / Associated Press
Tesla had revealed on September 18 that he had received a request for documents from the Department of Justice, 10 days before the company and Mr. Musk reached an agreement with the SEC on civil charges in a separate case involving controversial tweets from the Mr. Musk.
But it has not been previously reported that the Justice Department is focusing on the production problems of Tesla Model 3 that date back to the beginning of last year and that the criminal investigation of securities fraud is escalating.
In a statement, Tesla said he had "received a voluntary request for documents from the Justice Department about his public orientation for the Model 3 ramp" earlier this year and that he was "cooperative in responding to it." The company said it has not. received any subpoena or other requests from the agency.
Tesla added that it has been "transparent about how difficult" the production of Model 3 would be, and that "it took us six months longer than we expected to meet our guide of 5,000 units per week."
The Department of Justice and the SEC declined to comment.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported record quarterly earnings as the increase in production of its Model 3 ended with seven quarters of losses for the electric car manufacturer. The results of the third quarter, which boosted Tesla's shares, followed a series of production delays. Musk is betting that Model 3 can transform the company of a luxury niche brand into a legitimate rival against the world's largest automakers.
In recent weeks, FBI agents have contacted former Tesla employees to ask for testimony in the criminal case. Former employees received citations earlier in the investigation, and FBI agents recently sought to interview several of them, the people said.
In February 2017, after reporting the results of the fourth quarter of 2016, Tesla He presented an aggressive production plan. to implement Model 3, with plans to increase up to 5,000 vehicles per week in the fourth quarter of that year.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for securities fraud in a market tweet in August about the possibility of Tesla being private. The news is just the latest development in a tumultuous year for the CEO. Photo illustration: Heather Seidel / The Wall Street Journal
In a conference call that month with analysts, Musk said he was pushing suppliers to be ready for a weekly execution rate of 1,000 vehicles in July, 2,000 in August and 4,000 in September.
A few months later, in July, Musk seemed confident that Tesla would produce 20,000 models 3 per month in December 2017, in line with its previous promise of 5,000 vehicles per week at the end of the year.
"It looks like we can get to 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in December" tweeted on July 2, 2017, days before the first Model 3 left the production line.
In the first weeks of production, the company's body shop, where the skeleton of the cars would take shape, was not fully functional, according to a Article of October 2017 in the Wall Street Journal. Tesla was still building parts of Model 3 by hand, and the body shop was not fully installed until September, according to the people cited in the article who were familiar with the situation.
Tesla ended up producing 2,700 models 3 for all 2017 and 793 in the last week of that year.
Now the FBI is comparing the company's statements with its production capacity during 2017. The authorities are analyzing whether the company made projections about its production of Model 3 knowing that it would be impossible to meet the targets, according to people close to the situation.
Models 3 started assembling in July 2017 and Tesla finally achieved the long-promised goal of making 5,000 vehicles in a single week during the last seven days of June 2018.
The company's goal was to follow that pace, but eventually it averaged 4,300 models per week, excluding planned downtime, during the third quarter of this year. He said he built more than 5,300 of the cars during the last week of the period.
Although Tesla shares have It emerged this week in their earnings outlook, they are still down about 17% from a peak in June 2017.
The SEC is not involved in the investigation into production problems at Tesla, people familiar with the matter said.
The SEC agreement was related to a statement by Mr. Musk through his
He says on August 7 that he had "secured funds" to take Tesla privately. The SEC alleged that Mr. Musk's tweet was "false and misleading".
Under the agreement, Mr. Musk and the company agreed to pay a total of $ 40 million in fines and eliminate Mr. Musk from his role as chairman of the board, without admitting or denying the irregularities.
The Department of Justice and the SEC often coordinate investigative efforts, but the SEC's recent civil action on Mr. Musk's tweet about the company's confidentiality did not address questions about the production disclosures of Model 3.
Write to Dana Cimilluca in dana.cimilluca@wsj.com, Susan Pulliam in susan.pulliam@wsj.com and Aruna Viswanatha in Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com
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