Elon Musk, notorious for making controversial statements on his personal Twitter account, is facing a new round of regulatory trouble for his latest tweet. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently asked a judge to hold the Tesla CEO in contempt for violating a legal accord that required him to get Tesla’s approval for social media postings.
In fact, any writings that could be material to investors needed Tesla’s board approval, Bloomberg reports. However, Musk breached the deal on February 19 with a tweet stating “Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019.” A few hours later, the billionaire CEO clarified to say the company’s annualised production rate by end-2019 would probably be around 500,000, and that only 400,000 will be delivered.
The SEC’s move puts Musk in legal peril once again. Less than five months ago, Musk landed in hot soup after misleading the public with tweets about taking Tesla private. This time, he could be facing a variety of penalties, with the harshest being that he’ll be barred from running Tesla or any other public company for a period of time, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019
“Having your CEO in contempt of an SEC action is a pretty bad thing,” Elson told the publication in a phone interview. “They settled with him and within a few months he’s back to doing similar things. It’s unbelievable.” Musk’s actions have also raised concerns about his ability to keep his impulses in check and responsibly run a public company.
Since the tweet, US district judge Alison Nathan, who is handling the case, hasn’t scheduled a hearing to weigh the contempt request or set a date for Musk or Tesla to respond to the filing. The news sent Tesla shares plunging as much as 5.4% after closing – the stock was already down 10% this year through the close of regular trading.
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Put a ‘*’ on every statement, add disclaimer “refer to my facebook for details, statement subjected to chg without notice!”
Abesla SpaceX! If their boss is not around to pull the string for 1 year, OTK will overtake his other baby company!
Gud time for Geely to buy Tesla shares and make Tesla great again!
Tesla is already great. i think elon musk knows better than you john
*clap clap* SEC review *clap clap*