In an Oct. 20 joint trial readiness report, Tesla stipulated to liability on three of Conroy’s five claims: breach of contract, breach of warranty and negligence [1]. The contract began in March 2020 at $82,210 for a 13.1 kW system and grew to roughly $110,000 for an 18.2 kW roof with six Powerwalls. Conroy says fixing the damage will cost “well over $2.5 million”; Tesla offered $5,000 to settle in April 2022 [1].
Conroy’s exhibit list describes January 2021 texts among Tesla employees, including a director of model engineering, discussing “experimenting” on the house, with daily reports going to Elon Musk, who is on Conroy’s witness list. Electrek said it had not independently reviewed those texts [1]. In the Oct. 27 ruling, the judge wrote that late-produced documents could support Conroy’s theory that Tesla “knowingly used Plaintiff’s home as an experiment while knowing they lacked…
PAYROLL & HR CONTROLS (PREVENTING “GHOST” SCHEMES)
Payroll fraud is often the hardest to detect because it “looks” like a normal business expense.
- Segregation of Duties (SoD): The person who adds new employees to the system must not be the same person who approves the monthly pay run.
- Mandatory Vacation Policy: Require all financial and HR staff to take 5–10 consecutive days of leave annually. Fraud often surfaces when the perpetrator isn’t there to “hide” the trail.
- Ghost Employee Audit: Perform a quarterly “Headcount Reconciliation” where managers must physically verify every name on their payroll list exists.
- Self-Pay Blocking: Ensure the payroll software has a hard-coded block preventing administrators from editing their own salary or bank details.