Two Tesla Execs Leave Company, Sinking Share Price

A difficult week for Tesla (TSLA) culminated in two high-level executives leaving the company on the same day, hours after the company’s CEO smoked marijuana on an internet broadcast. Accounting chief Dave Morton and human resources head Gabrielle Toledano both left Tesla on Friday morning, sending Tesla shares on a downward spiral to end the week.

Bloomberg confirmed Morton’s and Toledano’s departures on Friday morning. Morton had only been on the job for less than a month before calling it quits, citing the abnormally high level of public scrutiny the electric car manufacturer faces for seemingly everything other than making cars.

“I want to be clear that I believe strongly in Tesla, its mission, and its future prospects, and I have no disagreements with Tesla’s leadership or its financial reporting,” Morton said in his announcement, per Bloomberg.

Toledano told Bloomberg she was exiting the company after an extended leave of absence. She had been at Tesla since July 2017. Both announcements came the morning after founder and CEO Elon Musk appeared on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast, an appearance that infamously included on-camera marijuana use. In all, Musk spent two and a half hours on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” per CNBC.

Tesla shares dropped by as much as 10 percent on Friday morning, the company’s worst performance since 2016. Things got slightly better for the car company as the morning went on, as Tesla shares were only down by less than 5 percent at the time of writing.

This summer has seen several high-profile scandals involving Tesla or its CEO, usually followed by some kind of stock market dip. Musk tweeted in August that Tesla planned on going private at $420 per share, which sent shares way up. However, his declaration that funding for the venture had been secured turned out not to be the case, leading Tesla to abandon the plan and sinking its share price.

The company endured another self-inflicted public relations wound this week when Musk sent a number of profanity-laden emails to Buzzfeed News. In the messages, he attacked English cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who was involved in the recent rescue of a youth soccer team and their coach from a Thai cave system.

Musk called Unsworth a “child rapist” without substantiating that claim. The billionaire CEO had previously accused Unsworth of pedophilia after Unsworth publicly criticized Musk’s aborted plan to rescue the soccer team with a custom-built submarine.