Former Tesla employee indicted for $9.3M embezzlement scheme

Salil Parulekar allegedly diverted money owed to one Tesla supplier and sent it to another supplier.

Former Tesla supply chain worker Salil Parulekar has been indicted by a federal grand jury on embezzlement charges.

Parulekar allegedly diverted money owed to one Tesla supplier and caused it to be sent to another supplier, falsifying invoices to shift approximately $9.3 million in payments.

The Department of Justice claims Parulekar went as far as stealing the identity of an employee of one supplier and impersonating the worker to deceive Tesla's accounts payable division into switching the bank account information.

Federal prosecutors have laid down a long list of charges including nine counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

"If convicted, the maximum penalty for each count of wire fraud is twenty years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine," the DoJ says. "The maximum sentence for aggravated identity theft ... is two years in prison--to be served consecutively to the underlying felony--and a $250,000 fine."