The Tesla Files Unveil More Accounting Fraud Than Imagined

https://bradmunchen.substack.com/p/the-tesla-files-unveil-more-accounting

by Jaauthor • 2 years ago

84 9 2 years ago

bradmunchen.substack.com

Jaauthor• 2 years ago

I was preparing my usual Tesla Weekly until Aaron Greenspan dropped his explosive filing on Wednesday against Musk and Tesla, which highlighted loads of details from the “Tesla Files” on their egregious accounting frauds.

Lots of topics to cover this week aside from the headline story, but here is the breakdown for today’s Tesla Weekly:

Bombshell Complaint Filed Against Musk & Tesla—The Main Story Of This Report: An amended complaint in the Greenspan v. Musk et al trial was filed on Wednesday with damning internal data from Tesla highlighting a vast array of accounting fraud. It’s an explosive report, which is why it is the focus of today’s Tesla Weekly.

Trading Thoughts: Tesla is down 6.4% on the week through yesterday on lower-than-average volumes. Break outs to the upside were swiftly sold down, but there was an effort to keep the stock above $203, its 200-day moving average.

China Weekly Sales Suddenly Dropped Last Week: Despite 0% loans from Tesla and $2,800 incentives from the PRC, Tesla’s sales last week dropped by 17% YoY. This is odd given the low hurdle from Q3 2023.

jeffreygoesto• 2 years ago

Is it time for the red shorts now?

csomar• 2 years ago

The author talks about some bearish points but all points he presents are far from the $650 market cap that Tesla is boasting. A billion here and a billion there does not take a "practically" broke company to a trillion dollar valuation.

There is more at play here. I think it's mania and a strong case of the market can remain irrational longer than the short can remain solvent. Tesla, at the current fundamentals, is worth much less than $650Bn. How is that possible and how one takes a company with y value to 10.y is still not yet answered.

Maybe Elon Musk is not a fool after all. He did buy Twitter at a big mark up. But if momentum drove his market cap and he can capitalize on that through the stock market then buying Twitter does make sense: It's backed by Tesla stock but the Tesla stock itself is backed by Twitter.

IOT_Apprentice• 2 years ago

I’m not hopeful that Musk will face any consequences for any of this. He skated on pumping dogecoin & I presume Andressen et al will get the same for their altcoin shenanigans. Perhaps part of his alignment to Trump is to have the Federalist Society judges ignore his alleged fraud.

BLanen• 2 years ago

Maybe if you read the report you would've have seen the >10% fraudulent sales?

gwern• 2 years ago

The discussion of the SD Early Access Program starting on pg34 (https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=332879335...) is interesting. I didn't realize those Tesla-driving Twitter/YT accounts were instructed to delete disengagements/errors and were paid - even getting early access to Musk's Twitter-revenue sharing program. But I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised.

typon• 2 years ago

"accounting fraud" is so quaint compared to what it takes to outrage people these days

jrnx• 2 years ago

the pdf of the filing can be downloaded here: https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/download.html?id=332879335...

maybe I missed it, but I could not find anything substantial regarding the more recent years. Most points are about accounting interpretations in the years up to 2020 when Tesla finances still were weak...

What did I miss about any issues with current accounting malpractices?

thinkcomp• 2 years ago

That's because the securities losses took place from 2018-2020. But there are plenty of allegations regarding more recent years such as FSD deferred revenue, DMV enforcement actions, AR/AP, tax evasion, silencing critics, etc.

The Tesla Files Unveil More Accounting Fraud Than Imagined

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