David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital compares Tesla to Lehman Brothers

NEW YORK (Reuters) – David Einhorn, the hedge fund manager known for his phone call about Lehman Brothers' accounting problems, criticized Tesla Inc. (TSLA.Oand Elon Musk Friday, saying the automaker's woes were similar to those of the global financial services company before its collapse.

"Just like Lehman, we believe that deception is about to catch up with TSLA," said Greenlight Capital, which sold Tesla's shares, in a quarterly Reuters letter.

"The erratic behavior of Elon Musk suggests that he sees it in the same way," the letter adds, referring to Tesla's combative CEO after he was attacked again at the vendors at discovered electric car manufacturer Thursday.

Tesla shares fell 7% to 262 dollars on Friday.

Einhorn pointed to parallels by saying, "Lehman has threatened short sellers, refused to raise capital (he even bought back shares), and management has publicly suggested that this would pass to the private sector" in the months before the bankruptcy of the bank.

"A few months later, shareholders, creditors, employees and the global economy paid a heavy price when the reckless behavior of management led to bankruptcy," said Eihorn.

Einhorn said in the letter that his short position on Tesla was his second-biggest winner in the third quarter. The main Greenlight fund has lost 26% this year.

Tesla could not be reached for an immediate comment.

Einhorn's Greenlight sold the remaining shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on the growing fear of "Chinese retaliation against US trade policies," according to the letter.

In August, Einhorn reduced its bet on Apple by 77% to 142,100 shares. The company sold the remaining Apple shares on August 31 at $ 228 per share. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple's shares fell 2% to 223.43 dollars on Friday.