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Tesla Is Facing U.S. Criminal Probe Over Elon Musk Statements
Tesla Inc. is under investigation by the Justice Department over public statements made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, according to two people familiar with the matter. 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, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential criminal probe. The tweet initially sent the company's shares higher.
[...] The criminal inquiry is in its early stages, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Justice Department probes, like the civil inquiries undertaken by the SEC, can take months. They sometimes end with prosecutors deciding against bringing any charges.
Also at MarketWatch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @10:16PM
I don't think that Musk ever cared about making cars. He wanted to make batteries and supply other electric car companies, that's where the real money is (dealing with the public and individual customers is a royal pita). If you accept this premise, then the Gigafactory (lithium batteries) makes more sense. Tesla cars exist to consume the early production of the battery factory, until other car companies catch up with their electric car production.
Tesla car buyers will (some years from now) be left high and dry with no factory service, after Tesla goes belly up. Luckily electric car drivetrains tend to be pretty reliable, so it may be a soft landing for the car customers?