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Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
- A former Tesla employee has filed a whistleblower tip with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the law firm representing the employee said in a statement on Monday.
- The tip corroborates a prior tip that claimed Tesla did not disclose to shareholders the theft of raw materials and the unauthorized surveillance and hacking of employee devices, Meissner Associates said.
- The new tip also claims that a proposal to take Tesla private in 2018 was discussed and viewed with skepticism by "many" Tesla employees before Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the proposal in August, Meissner Associates said.
- Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the SEC declined a request for comment.
A former Tesla employee has filed a whistleblower tip with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the law firm representing the employee said in a statement on Monday.
The tip from Sean Gouthro, the former head of Tesla's global security operations center and investigations, was filed on January 24 and corroborates a prior tip made by Karl Hansen, a former internal security employee at Tesla, Meissner Associates said in a statement on Monday.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The SEC declined a request for comment.
Read more: Tesla is raising the prices on cars that it marked down less than 2 weeks ago
Hansen filed a tip in August alleging that Tesla did not disclose to shareholders the theft of raw materials and the unauthorized surveillance and hacking of employee devices, according to Meissner Associates. The statement also alleged that Tesla did not tell federal authorities about information it received from Hansen about alleged drug trafficking at the company's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
"This guy is super [nuts emoji]," Tesla CEO Elon Musk told Gizmodo at the time.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment at the time, and the SEC and the Drug Enforcement Administration declined requests for comment.
Gouthro's tip also claims that a proposal to take Tesla private in 2018 was discussed and viewed with skepticism by "many" Tesla employees before Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the proposal in August, Meissner Associates said.
"Many were suspect of the purported deal's legitimacy," Gouthro's tip claims, according to Meissner Associates.
Musk's tweets about the go-private proposal led to a lawsuit from the SEC, which alleged that Musk had made "false and misleading statements" about the level of interest Tesla had received from investors about the deal. The SEC's lawsuit resulted in a settlement that required Musk to step down as the chairman of Tesla's board of directors for three years and pay a $20 million fine. The settlement also required Tesla to monitor communications from Musk relevant to Tesla shareholders.
Gouthro is the third former Tesla employee represented by Meissner Associates to announce the filing of a whistleblowing tip with the SEC in the past year. In July, Martin Tripp, a former technician at the Gigafactory, filed a tip that contained claims he had previously made to Business Insider, including that Tesla used batteries with puncture holes in vehicles meant for customers, according to The Washington Post. Tesla has denied this claim.
Tripp also claimed the company overreported Model 3 production by up to 44%, according to The Post.
Have a Tesla news tip? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.
- Read more:
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- Tesla encouraged its employees to buy cars using their paid vacation days
- Tesla won't 'ever report another profitable quarter,' former hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson says
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