Omead Afshar, the Tesla executive tasked with overseeing operations at the company’s Texas factory, is reportedly the subject of an internal investigation over a glass purchase deemed “suspicious,” according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that Afshar will likely go on a leave of absence before Tesla cuts him from the company completely.
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.
On his LinkedIn profile, Afshar states he has worked for the “Office of the CEO at Tesla” since 2017. He substitutes the cowboy hat emoji in place of his current job title at the company, likely alluding to his role in the construction and management of Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory. Since starting at the company, Afshar has worked in close proximity to Musk, with The Information going so far as to describe him as Musk’s “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.
