Elon Musk is accused of manipulating 'Tesla whistleblower' search results by unveiling bizarre $50 'Cyberwhistle' to bury news of SEC probe into electric car company after ex-worker said CEO HID fire risks from investors
Tesla founder Elon Musk has been accused of trying to bump down online search results about a federal whistleblower investigation into the electric car company by selling a $50 'Cyberwhistle.'
Musk first tweeted about the stainless steel whistle - modeled after the car maker's upcoming Cybertruck - on November 30, urging his followers to 'Blow the whistle on Tesla!'
However, on Monday, it was revealed that a former Tesla employee had filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming that the company failed to warn shareholders about its solar panels, which could catch on fire.
Some have accused Musk of selling the bizarre whistle to overshadow the upcoming news of the SEC investigation and drown out Google search results about the 'whistleblower.'
'Wow. Elon Musk is burying news of an upcoming SEC whistleblower investigation by selling whistles. He’s manipulating Google results. No one ever said he wasn’t creative,' tweeted Matt Stoller, the Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, a corporate accountability nonprofit.
Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk, 50, is being accused of selling a whistle to drown out 'whistleblower' search results after the SEC revealed an investigation into the car maker
Matt Stoller, the Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, accused Musk of trying to manipulate Google and other search results
The $50 stainless steel whistle sold out overnight after Musk urged his Twitter followers to, 'Blow the whistle on Tesla!'
The whistle was modeled after the car maker's upcoming armored Cybertruck
The SEC launched its probe after former Tesla field quality manager Steven Henkes filed his complaint in 2019, according to Reuters.
He said that Tesla and SolarCity, which it bought in 2016, did not disclose its 'liability and exposure to property damage, risk of injury of users, fire etc to shareholders' before or after the acquisition.
Tesla also failed to notify its customers that defective electrical connectors could lead to fires, according to the complaint.
Tesla told consumers that it needed to conduct maintenance on the solar panel system to avoid a failure that could shut down the system, but it didn't warn of fire risks, offer temporary shutdown to mitigate risk or report the problems to regulators, Henkes said.
Former Tesla field quality manager Steven Henke filed a whistleblower complaint on Tesla solar panels in July, claiming the company failed to tell shareholders about its risks
The investigation was confirmed after Henkes filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the SEC about the status of his complaint.
'We have confirmed with Division of Enforcement staff that the investigation from which you seek records is still active and ongoing,' the SEC said in a September 24 response to Henkes, declining his request to provide its records.
Separately, former Tesla employees told the New York Times that Musk may have contributed to the risks of his company's Autopilot system because of his desire to use only cameras and ditch sensors.
At least 10 people have been killed in eight accidents in which Tesla's Autopilot was engaged since 2016, according to reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency.
When Tesla's Autopilot technology began, it initially incorporated cameras, radar and sensors.
But Musk earlier this year tasked engineers with building a car that relied only on cameras for its autopilot feature, sources told the Times.
Musk's mocking tweet about the Cyberwhistle came days before the Reuters report revealed the existence of the SEC investigation.
Henkes, who filed the complaint, has also sued Tesla claiming he was fired was in retaliation for raising safety concerns about the solar panels.
Musk fans ran with the gag, with the $50 Cyberwhistle selling out overnight, and defended the South African-billionaire.
'Please stop with the SEO nonsense, all of you,' wrote investor Mark B. Spiegel, referring to the acronym for search engine optimization. 'This is Musk mocking the law and his regulators, pure and simple. No one searches for "Tesla whistleblower" and gets that whistle.'
Musk - the second richest person in the world with a net worth of $264.5 billion, according to Forbes - is known for his 'trolling' ways, often using his personal Twitter account to mock journalists and politicians and undermine his company's stock price with jokes.
One such joke was the subject of another SEC investigation.
In 2018, the mogul and his company were ordered to pay the financial regulator $40 million after he valued Tesla shares at $420 each in a tweet that he later admitted was a weed joke to impress girlfriend Grimes.
Earlier this year, he was accused of manipulating the price of Bitcoin when he hinted that Tesla had sold its remaining shares in the cryptocurrency, only to later admit that it hadn't.
Tesla describes the Cyberwhistle, which is sold out, as a 'premium collectible made from medical-grade stainless steel with a polished finish'
The Cybertruck the whistle is based on will enter production next year, Tesla says
Musk bought about $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin back in February, around the time it announced it would accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its products.
It was revealed in May that he sold off about $272 million in Bitcoin during Q1 of this year. That same month, Tesla announced that it would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment, citing environmental concerns.
Musk initially suggested in a cryptic tweet that Tesla could have dumped the remainder of its Bitcoin holdings, but later tweeted: 'To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin.'
One Bitcoin was worth $42,475 in the minutes before the second tweet - the first time it was worth less than $45,000 in three months. Fifteen minutes later, it was worth $44,831.
Musk, the richest man in the world, has been known to use Twitter to mock critics, journalists and politicians and to undermine his company's stock price with jokes
In 2018, Musk and Tesla paid the SEC $40 million after he valued Tesla shares at $420 each in a tweet that he later admitted was a weed joke to impress then-girlfriend Grimes, right
In June, Musk has said that the company will resume Bitcoin transactions when they become more environmentally friendly.
'Tesla only sold ~10% of holdings to confirm BTC could be liquidated easily without moving market,' Musk tweeted. 'When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.'
Crypto is 'mined' by high-powered computers that require huge amounts of energy to continuously solve computational math puzzles. With each solved problem, a certain amount of coin is produced.
While the machines use electricity, fossil fuel is a major category in electricity generation.
Environmentalists argue that the creation of the cryptocurrency may harm efforts to limit global warming.
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