The Securities and Exchange Commission blasted Tesla Motors for using and sharing prohibited accounting information with investors prior to the company’s merger with SolarCity.
The California-based electric vehicle maker used “individually tailored” when it added back costs to revenue numbers calculated under a set of financial rules called GAAP, which are used to inform the SEC about a company’s yearly revenue and expenditures.
The SEC allows the use of some non-GAAP metrics, but most exotic figures that adjust expenditures are prohibited. One common non-GAAP procedure is to exclude irregular expenses, such as those related to acquisitions and other unusual circumstances.
Tesla’s business dealings are nothing if not unusual. The company jumps around from crafting electric vehicles to building solar-panel layered roofs.
