The flight of executives from Tesla Motors reminds one shrewd investor of the shakeups that preceded Valeant's plummet.
Famed short-seller Jim Chanos told CNBC that by his count, Tesla has already seen eight executives leave the company this year.
"The last high-profile company that we saw with such a similar large number of senior executive departures was Valeant," Chanos said.
The battered pharmaceutical company has seen its stock plunge 90 percent in the past 12 months.
In May, Tesla's vice president of production and its vice president of manufacturing left the company. At the time, Chanos told "Halftime Report" that one of his firm's "historical signposts of a company in trouble is when numbers of senior people leave over a short period of time."
"Tesla fits that bill. ... We have all kinds of questions about the profitability of the business," Chanos said.
In the wake of these departures, Tesla has also been hiring executives from other automakers including a new .
The closely followed investment manager has been vocal about his short position on Tesla. He called the deal between the electric automaker and SolarCity a "shameful example of corporate governance at its worst" last month.
Tesla declined to comment.
— CNBC's Kelly Evans contributed to this report.