With a "goodwill" repair, Tesla essentially foots the bill for labor, parts or accessories given to keep a customer happy. "Were Tesla to accurately categorize its 'goodwill' repairs as warranty repairs, it would likely need to restate earnings for every quarter since at least 2017," the tipsters wrote in their submission. In one example, the tipsters said screenshots showed other Tesla employees changed the status of material used in manufacturing from "scrap" to "work in progress." In another example, the complaint said screenshots showed Tesla employees had manually changed the status of "used" cars to "new" in a program that tracked vehicle deliveries data. In correspondence to the agency expanding on their complaint, the whistleblowers alleged this raises questions about the firm's independence and objectivity in judging Tesla's financials.

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Persons: Brandon Bell, Elon, Tesla's, Tesla, Musk, Ann Lipton, Lipton, Karen Nelson, Nelson, Nicholas Parks, it's, Oxley, restate financials Organizations: Getty, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, CNBC . Agency staff, CNBC, Twitter, Tulane Law School, University of Chicago Law School, Securities, Sarbanes, Oxley, Texas Christian University, Public Company, Tesla, Parks, Nelson, Business, Exchange, Board, SpaceX, The Boring, California Alternative Energy, Transportation Financing Authority Locations: Austin , Texas, Tesla, California, U.S, Delaware