U. Tesla handed over documents to US Department of Justice

Tesla shares fell Tuesday to the announcement that the electric car maker was the subject of a federal criminal investigation.

Bloomberg first reported that the US Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the company. The news comes add to previous reports of a civil investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tesla confirmed that it was contacted by the DOJ in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.

"Last month, after the announcement by Elon that he was considering taking the company privately, Tesla received a voluntary request for DOJ documents and cooperated to respond to them." We have not received a citation, formal process, we respect the desire of the DOJ to obtain information on this subject and we believe that the problem should be resolved quickly when they examine the information they have received, "said one spokesperson for the company.

According to some reports, CEO Elon Musk is under surveillance for tweeting his intention to take the company privately – a plan that seemed ill-conceived and was eventually abandoned.

The Justice Department generally does not confirm or deny the investigations, spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman told The Associated Press.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the SEC is also investigating whether Tesla has misled model 3 production problems. The model – marketed as an "affordable" Tesla electric car with an initial price of $ 35,000 – suffers from problems logistics. with Tesla delivering only 2,700 cars last year – much less than 200,000 Musk had promised before.

Tesla shares, traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol TSLA, fell 3.5% Tuesday to about $ 285. The stock is down nearly 12% this year, shaken by reports of production delays, irregular tweets and reports of Musk apparently unstable private life.

Despite Tuesday's stock market dive, some analysts maintain a positive view of the company, betting that the damage could be limited to its CEO.

"Based on the facts we have, we believe that Musk will be liable for the fines (not necessarily the TSLA), although the details remain uncertain," wrote Ben Kallo, senior analyst at Baird, in a customer note.

But others reiterated that the company – even if it was successful in marketing electric cars – could make a profit. UBS has recently lowered its price target for the company, believing that the cheapest model 3 would lose money and face increased competition from other electric car manufacturers.