Elon Musk accuses Tesla employee of 'extensive and damaging sabotage'
Elon Musk has discovered a saboteur.
At least, that's what he told Tesla employees in an email sent Sunday night, according to CNBC.
"I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations," wrote Musk, who's under an immense amount of pressure to ramp up production of the Tesla Model 3 sedan.
The email was sent the same night a fire shut down operations at a Tesla plant in Fremont, California, for several hours.
Musk claimed an employee who was upset he didn't get a promotion altered Tesla code and sent "large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties."
"As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die"
He then warned of enemies who might want to do Tesla harm.
"As you know, there are a long list of organizations that want Tesla to die," he wrote. "These include Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more. Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world — they don't love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars."
Last week, Tesla announced it was cutting more than 3,000 employees — about 9 percent of its workforce — in an effort to become profitable.
UPDATE: June 20, 2018, 10:44 a.m. PDT Tesla filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Nevada Wednesday against a former Nevada Gigafactory employee, Martin Tripp.
In the complaint, Tesla alleges that Tripp, hired in October as a process technician, hacked into company systems and sent data and trade secret information outside the company. Tesla also claims he took photos and videos of manufacturing systems.
Tesla also alleges that Tripp made "false claims" to the media about using punctured battery cells for Model 3 cars, the amount of scrap material, or waste, generated, and delays in setting up manufacturing equipment.
The suit states, "As a direct result of Tripp’s conduct, Tesla has suffered."
Keith Wagstaff is an assistant editor at Mashable and a terrible Settlers of Catan player. He has written for TIME, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, NBC News, The Village Voice, VICE, GQ and New York Magazine, among many other reputable and not-so-reputable publications. After nearly a decade in New York City, he now lives in his native Los Angeles.
