According to a media report, the US Attorney’s Office is investigating the use of Tesla’s company funds. It should be about a house for CEO Musk. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has also launched a civil investigation.
According to a media report, the US electric car manufacturer Tesla is being investigated for allegations of misappropriation of company funds for a private project by company boss Elon Musk. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the US federal judiciary and the US Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the company’s funds were used to finance an extravagant glass house for the Tesla boss.
“Project 42,” as the newspaper calls it internally, is about “building a spacious glass structure” in Austin, Texas, where the company’s headquarters are located.
Investigations at an “early stage”
Both the investigations of the prosecutor’s office and those of the SEC are still in an “early stage” and do not necessarily have to lead to indictments, according to the report.
The Wall Street Journal reported back in July that the Tesla board was checking whether company funds had been misused for the project. Previously, employees said the company had ordered walls made of a special glass for several million dollars. The newspaper did not know whether the walls had been delivered and how far the “Project 42” had progressed.
Authorities have not yet commented
In addition, the lower than expected range of the Tesla vehicles is the subject of the investigation. The Reuters news agency reported in July, citing experts who had tested or examined the vehicles, that the vehicles often did not achieve the ranges advertised and the predictions made by the devices in the vehicles themselves.
An SEC spokesman said the agency would not comment on the existence or non-existence of a possible investigation. Neither Musk nor a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, which the newspaper says is leading the investigation, has so far responded to inquiries from Reuters.