[ad_1]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his legal team arrived Thursday for a court hearing in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case against him.
The legal niche dates back to Musk's tweet in September 2018 that he was seeking to privatize Tesla at $ 420 per share. This private offer did not work and resulted in two $ 20 million settlements between Tesla and Musk with the SEC.
Musk has also agreed to have his tweets monitored by an employee of the company, but Tesla has not revealed the identity of this "twitter guardian". That was fine, until Musk tweeted on Feb. 19 that Tesla was building 500,000 cars in 2019, which was a considerable departure from what the company had told investors in its regulatory filings .
Despite a correction about four hours later in the morning, the SEC accused Musk of violating the agreement and asked the court to find him in contempt of court.
Full coverage: Elon Musk and the SEC are fighting a fierce battle over one of Musk's tweets – here's what you need to know about their dispute
Musk's lawyers argued in later documents that the SEC was asking the court to declare Musk contempt of court. According to Musk's lawyers, the SEC was trying to expand the scope of the settlement to include all of Musk's tweets on Tesla, regardless of their relevance to shareholders.
"Such a prior restriction would violate the First Amendment," Musk's lawyers said.
The hearing, in the Federal District Court of the Southern District of New York in the United States, will begin at 14:00 Thursday in the east. Business Insider has a reporter in the audience room. Follow the news by updating this page:
Source link
