A report published on Friday said that the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into whether electric-car maker Tesla Inc misled investors by overstating production forecasts for its Model 3 sedan.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that FBI agents have contacted former Tesla employees to interview them.
The paper cited anonymous people familiar with the matter.
A Tesla spokesman said that the company was transparent about the difficulty of increasing production of the Model 3.
The company cooperated with a “voluntary request” for documents from the US Department of Justice earlier this year and has received no additional requests on the matter for months, he said.
The FBI did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Tesla shares, which were enjoying a rally on Friday, gave up most of the gain immediately after the WSJ published the report, but they recovered and closed at US$330.90, a gain of US$16.04, or 5 percent on the day.
That capped a week in which the shares jumped 27 percent on strong third-quarter results.
The Model 3 is a key part of Tesla’s plan to expand from a niche player in the luxury segment to a car maker with broader appeal.
Early last year, Tesla announced plans to produce up to 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of that year.
It fell far short, making just 793 in the last week of last year and 2,700 in all of that year. It did not hit the 5,000-a-week target until June this year.
The WSJ reported that the FBI is probing whether the firm made production estimates that it knew would be impossible to meet.
The company defended its forecasts.
Tesla officials “were transparent about how difficult it would be” to ramp up Model 3 production, spokesman Kamran Mumtaz said.
“Ultimately, given difficulties that we did not foresee in this first-of-its-kind production ramp, it took us six months longer than we expected to meet our 5,000 unit per week guidance,” he said.
Last month, Tesla settled a civil lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over tweets by founder Elon Musk that funding was in place to take the company private.
Musk and Tesla agreed to pay US$40 million without acknowledging or denying wrongdoing.
This week Tesla reported a US$311.5 million profit for the July-to-September period, its first quarterly profit in two years.
The company said it produced an average 4,300 Model 3s per week over the period, excluding planned shutdowns, and 5,300 in the final week of the quarter.
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