The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into Tesla – report

According to a report released on Friday, the FBI opened a criminal investigation to determine whether electric car manufacturer Tesla had misled investors by overestimating the production forecast for its Model 3 sedan.

The Wall Street Journal reported that FBI agents had contacted former Tesla employees to question them. The newspaper quoted anonymous people familiar with the subject.

A spokesman for Tesla said the company was transparent about the difficulty of increasing the production of the model 3. He said the company had cooperated with a "voluntary request" for documents from the Ministry of Justice more early this year and had not received any other requests for months.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Shares of Tesla Inc., which had a rally on Friday, shed most of the gain immediately after the report was released by the Journal. But they recovered and closed at 330.90 USD (510.13 USD), a gain of 16.04 USD, or 5% on the day. This limited a week in which equities rose 27%, thanks to strong third quarter financial results.

Model 3 is a key part of Tesla's plan to move from a niche player in the luxury segment to a more attractive builder.

In early 2017, the Californian company based in Palo Alto announced its intention to produce up to 5,000 models 3 per week by the end of the year. It fell far ahead, reaching only 793 last week and 2,700 for the whole of 2017. It did not reach the goal of 5,000 a week before June 2018.

The Journal reported that the FBI was investigating that the company had estimated that production would be impossible to achieve. The company defended its forecasts.

Tesla officials "have been clear on the difficulty" of producing Model 3, spokesman Kamran Mumtaz said. "In the end, given the difficulties we had not anticipated in this one-of-a-kind production ramp, it took us six months longer than planned to meet our forecast of 5,000 units per week. "

Last month, Tesla settled a civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission following founder Elon Musk's tweets that funding was in place to privatize the company. Musk and Tesla have agreed to pay a combined $ 40 million US without recognizing or denying wrongdoing.

This week, Tesla announced a profit of $ 311.5 million for the period from July to September, its first quarterly profit in two years. The company reported producing approximately 4,300 models 3 per week, excluding scheduled downtime, and 5,300 in the last week of the quarter.

"We hope to produce and sell more models in the fourth quarter," Musk told analysts.

– AP