Tesla CEO Elon Musk emails employees about a possible saboteur in its ranks

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been struggling to meet its Model 3 production goals, and CEO Elon Musk believes that a saboteur within its ranks is to blame.

According to an email Musk sent to employees Sunday evening, Musk received information about a Tesla employee “who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage” to the company’s operations.

READ: Electric car maker Tesla slashes 9% of its workforce as part of what Elon Musk calls a ‘difficult, but necessary’ reorganization

The unnamed employee had been passed over for a promotion and retaliated by making direct code changes to the manufacturing operating system under false usernames, Musk claims. The employee then exported large amounts of “highly sensitive” data to unknown third parties, according to the email.

READ: Tesla’s ‘superior’ electronic architecture ‘overlooked’ says Berenberg

Musk warned employees to be mindful of Wall Street “short sellers and outside forces” that he believes are trying to stand in the way of Tesla reaching its production goal of 5,000 electric vehicles per week.

“Don’t want to blow your mind, but rumor has it that those companies are sometimes not super nice. Then there are the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors. If they’re willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they’re willing to cheat in other ways?” Musk speculated.

Musk directed employees to an email address where they could send an anonymous note about suspicious activity within the company.

Shares of Tesla sunk more than 4.5% to US$354.50 in morning trading.

Story by ProactiveInvestors