Elon Musk is suing the SEC for damages over his “funding secured” tweet in 2018. In early 2023, a jury ruled that the Tesla CEO was not guilty of misleading investors with his tweet about taking the company private.
Elon Musk fights for justice
The confrontation between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues. The head of the company continues to fight for his rights and takes the battle to the Supreme Court, according to Engadget. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, confirmed that Musk will ask the court to decide if the SEC went too far with a consent decree determining what Musk can say about Tesla’s financial performance on Twitter (now X). The head of the company is challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal dated May 15. It dismissed allegations that the SEC abused the ruling in order to prosecute it with Twitter-related investigations.
The SEC pushed Elon Musk to make a deal
The appeal came a day after a panel of judges denied Musk’s request for a retrial by the judges. Tesla’s CEO has previously mentioned he was being pushed into a deal with the regulator. Because of this, he had to waive his right to challenge the constitutionality of the SEC terms if he wanted to seek a final settlement.
During his talk at 2022 Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) in Vancouver, Musk said that at the time, the SEC had continued its active public investigation. This did not sit well with the banks, who began threatening to cut Tesla’s capital if Musk did not agree to an SEC settlement. This would make the company bankrupt. Under such tremendous psychological pressure, he was forced to agree to the terms of the SEC, but not because he would agree with their conclusions.
“So that’s like having a gun to your child’s head,” Musk said. “I was forced to admit that I lied to save Tesla’s life and that’s the only reason,” he added.
As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $40 million. The SEC demanded that Musk step down as chairman of the board. In addition, they forced him to approve all of his Tesla-related tweets with the company’s lawyer before they could be tweeted.
Elon Musk was found not guilty by the jury
The SEC launched an investigation into Musk over a tweet he posted in 2018. In it, he said he would make Tesla a private company and « funding is secured. » The deal never went through, and a group of shareholders blamed Musk for the losses they suffered. The commission sued the Tesla CEO over the tweets, arguing they could be considered a scam.
In February 2023, a jury ruled that Musk was not guilty of misleading investors with his « funding is secured » tweet. Investors who filed a class action lawsuit were unable to prove that Musk harmed them with his tweets. This should be a good basis for more seriously considering the legality of the SEC’s actions against Musk.
