Einhorn on Tesla: ‘Like Lehman, we think the deception is about to catch up’

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn is blasting Tesla again.

The investor compared Tesla to his most famous and prescient bearish call on Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis nearly a decade ago.

“Like Lehman, we think the deception is about to catch up to TSLA,” Einhorn said in an investor letter Friday. “Lehman threatened short sellers, refused to raise capital (it even bought back stock), and management publicly suggested it would go private. Months later, shareholders, creditors, employees and the global economy paid a big price when management’s reckless behavior led to bankruptcy.”

In May 2008, just a few months before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Einhorn said at the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference that the investment bank was a risk to the financial system and questioned its accounting. He confirmed his firm Greenlight was short Lehman during that speech.

Shares of Tesla, which were already down Friday in light of CEO Elon Musk’s tweets mocking the Securities and Exchange Commission, dropped 6.5 percent following news of Einhorn’s letter.

Musk has taunted short sellers in the past on social media, including Einhorn.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/einhorn-on-tesla-like-lehman-we-think-the-deception-is-about-to-catch-up-to-tsla.html