Musk's tweets are dangerous, says former SEC president Harvey Pitt



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Musk reached an agreement with the SEC at the end of last week to settle the charges related to a tweet of August 7 on the privatization of the company.

Under the settlement, Musk will pay a civil fine of $ 20 million and abandon his role as president for at least three years. Tesla has also been fined $ 20 million and is expected to appoint two new independent directors to the board, along with changes in institute governance.

However, the deal struck a problem Thursday after the federal judge approving it asked the parties to justify the settlement.

Pitt said that it was entirely possible for the judge to ask Tesla's lawyers how they plan to control Musk's tweets.

"It's now a real problem for the judge," he said.

Tesla 's board of directors will also have to deal with Musk' s erratic behavior in general. In addition to his tweets, the CEO gave a weird interview to The New York Times and appeared to be smoking pot and drinking whiskey during a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan.

Pitt said Musk's latest SEC tweet annoyed investors and made them "worried about the rationality of the person who is supposed to run this company."

"His tweets are hasty, mercurial and dangerous [but] (…) It is up to the council to try to find a way to wipe out those impulses that it seems to have by using its creative genius, "he said.

Tesla shares fell on Friday morning in the light of the tweet and have again lost sight of the fact that hedge fund manager David Einhorn wrote in a note: "Like Lehman, we believe that deception is about to catch up with TSLA" . Einhorn is short Tesla, which was down nearly 7% in afternoon trading.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment

– Javier David of CNBC and Robert Ferris contributed to this report.

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