--- title: "Leaked Tesla Memo: Angry Employee Sabotaged Part of Factory" description: "In an email, a Tesla executive warned workers that an anonymous employee \"maliciously sabotaged\" part of a factory last month." date: "2020-10-07" modified: "2020-10-07" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/leaked-tesla-memo-angry-employee-sabotaged-factory" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "elon musk" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Leaked Tesla Memo: Angry Employee Sabotaged Part of Factory ![In an email, a Tesla executive warned workers that an anonymous employee "maliciously sabotaged" part of a factory last month.]() *\Image: Tesla\* ## Under Attack In a leaked email, Tesla’s vice president of legal and acting general counsel Al Prescott warned workers that an anonymous employee "maliciously sabotaged" part of a factory last month, [*Bloomberg* reports](). "Two weeks ago, our IT and InfoSec teams determined than \[sic\] an employee had maliciously sabotaged a part of the Factory," Prescott wrote. Thanks to the team's "quick actions," he wrote, further damage was prevented with production "running smoothly again a few hours later." ## Aftermath Once they were shown "irrefutable evidence, the employee confessed," according to Prescott's email. The employee was fired on the spot. It's still unclear what the employee's act of sabotage amounted to. *Bloomberg* reports that the local Fremont police department was not contacted or called for assistance. ## Trend Piece The news comes weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed his electric car company's factory in Nevada was the [victim of a Russian national cyberattack](). Musk was also recently [embroiled in a lawsuit]() by former Tesla employee Martin Tripp, who allegedly violated trade secrets and computer crime laws. In June 2018, [Musk emailed all of Tesla](), accusing Tripp of being caught conducting "damaging sabotage to our operations." **READ MORE:** [Tesla Alleges Act of Employee Sabotage in New Internal Email]() \[*Bloomberg*\] **More on Tesla:** *[Tesla’s Roof Flies Off While Driving Home From Dealership]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()