Ex-Tesla president Jerome Guillen has been selling off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock in June alone. He was a key executive in the Tesla organization. His last position was president of Tesla Heavy Trucking. Before that, he was overall Tesla vehicles business. 

Ex-president Guillen has sold over 450,000 Tesla shares

With Tesla since 2010, Guillen has exercised stock options worth $274 million since June 10. This is based on a filing to the Securities Exchange Commission. That amounts to over 450,000 shares of Tesla stock. He left Tesla on June 3. 

This curiously ties into the news which also broke today that former Lordstown Motors executives sold over $8 million in stock in February. This was just before the bad news started surfacing about the company. And it happened right after Lordstown’s first prototype caught fire in January.

Lordstown executives sold off large chunks of shares in February

When these executives sold off these stock shares the price was $24 a share. Now it is below $10 a share. In response Lordstown made this statement; “As described in various Form 4 filings in the months following the DiamondPeak transaction, certain Lordstown Motors directors and executives have sold or transferred shares in the Company. Each of those transactions was made for reasons unrelated to the performance of the company or viability of the Endurance. And each such director and executive retained substantial Lordstown Motors equity holdings in the form of shares and options following the sales and transfers described in the Company’s public filings.”

As it turns out much of this statement does not ring true. One of the executives; propulsion head Chuan Vo, sold off 99.3 percent of his shares on February 2. Lordstown president Rich Schmidt sold almost 40 percent of his stock around the same time for $4.6 million. 

According to Car and Driver, none of these transactions broke any laws. Recently, the SEC has opened an investigation of Lordstown and its public statements. It is also looking at Lordstown’s SPAC activities that funded the company more recently. 

“It could raise some eyebrows for investors”

With Tesla seemingly on the verge of advances and innovations in electric vehicles, why would its top executive divest himself of so much Tesla stock? “It could raise some eyebrows for investors,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives told Automotive News. Investors could be more skeptical of Tesla stock under these circumstances. 

It is also a key time in Tesla vehicle development with its Semi electric truck and Cybertruck on the verge of being released. Tesla is also developing its next Roadster and also an entry-level EV. Plus, it is expanding production to other countries as it looks to capitalize on its unique position as the first production EV manufacturer.