A glass purchase at the Tesla Giga factory is under internal investigation that is deemed to be “suspicious”. Tesla executive, Omead Afshar, who was responsible for the purchase is under investigation. It is said that Afshar will likely be on a leave of absence before Tesl cuts him off completely.
It is known that Afshar reportedly placed an order for a “special” type of glass that isn’t all that easy to procure amid supply chain constraints, and told staff it was for a “secret project.” According to Bloomberg, Tesla’s finance department flagged the glass purchase earlier this year, sparking the internal probe led by David Searle, Tesla’s acting head of legal. While investigators still aren’t sure whether the glass was for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s personal use, Bloomberg notes that some employees involved in the incident have already been fired. The situation also calls into question whether Afshar used Tesla’s economic standing as a way to get a hold of the glass.
According to his Linkedin Profile, Afshar worked for the Office of the CEO at Tesla since 2017. He places a cowboy emoji in place of his current job title at the company, possibly indicating his role in construction and management. It is known that he worked closely with Elon Musk, to be also known as the “right-hand man”. The news of Afshar’s potential termination follows the departure of Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s head of AI. It also comes at a particularly turbulent time for Tesla (and basically every other Musk-owned company), as Twitter attempts to force Musk into his initial $44 billion agreement to buy the social platform.
Investigation
It can be illegal to use company funds for personal expenses — especially when dealing with a publicly traded company. If a public company was found to have used company funds for an executive’s personal use it could lead to an IRS investigation, as well as lawsuits from shareholders.
“You didn’t do anything without getting approval from him,” Julian Cantu, a former Workplace Operations Lead at Tesla told Insider. On Wednesday, Afshar tweeted that he was “Super proud of the Fremont production team” after the company hit the 2 million mile stone for manufactured vehicles.
The publication reported that several Tesla employees have already been terminated as a result of the investigation, which included a special kind of glass that has been difficult to secure due to the supply-chain crisis. Afshar is also likely to leave the company as a result of the internal investigation, several sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg.