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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, accusing him of making false public statements that could harm investors.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks to prevent Mr. Musk from acting as a director or director of publicly traded companies. Tesla, the maker of electric cars that Mr. Musk co-founded, is listed on the stock exchange.
The lawsuit concerns an August 7th Twitter post by Mr. Musk, in which he stated that he had "guaranteed funds" to convert Tesla into a private company.
The second. stated that Mr. Musk "knew or was imprudent not to know" that his statements were false or misleading. "In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, let alone confirmed, the terms of the deal, including the price, with a potential source of funding," says the SC said in his lawsuit.
In a statement released by Tesla, Musk said, "This unjustified action by the S / C leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. I've always acted in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show that I have never compromised it in any way.
Musk, who sometimes sleeps in the Tesla factory while working on production issues, is widely regarded by analysts and investors as the engine behind Tesla's creation. The company's shares fell by more than 10% after trading hours after the S.E.C filed its lawsuit.
The second. already investigated Tesla when Mr. Musk posted his private tweet as he was going to the airport himself in a Tesla Model S. The shares of the company went up immediately.
The second. Soon, a series of subpoenas were sent to Tesla and the financial institutions she eventually hired for advice on converting to a private company. The agency also interviewed a number of members of the Tesla board, according to a person familiar with the subject.
The complaint states that Musk "knew he had never discussed a privatization transaction at $ 420 per share with a potential source of financing."
The second. said that Musk was in a persistent row with investors who were betting that Tesla's stock would fall. The complaint states that Mr Musk had discussions in late July with a foreign investment fund that had recently acquired a 5% stake in Tesla. In these talks, Musk said he was considering taking Tesla privately, but the regulators said no formal agreement had been reached.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of growing problems for Tesla and Mr Musk. The company is struggling to meet the ambitious production targets that Mr. Musk has publicly described. He made a series of unusual public comments or appearances, including an Internet interview in which Mr. Musk seemed to smoke marijuana.
Federal prosecutors in California have also sought information from Tesla, an investigation that appears to be at an early stage.
The second. According to the complaint, on August 2, five days before the tweet was sent, Mr. Musk sent an email to Tesla's board of directors, chief financial officer and legal advisor with the following subject: " Offer to take Tesla Private at $ 420. stated that he wanted the matter to be put to the shareholders' vote "at the earliest opportunity," the complaint added, and wished to do so in part because of attacks on the company's shares. bearish investors known as short sellers.
According to the record, Mr. Musk pointed out that the $ 420 amount was based on a 20% premium over the August 2 closing price – and rounded it up to $ 420 after his girlfriend would be funny.
The board of directors of August 3 authorized Mr. Musk to discuss with some investors the privatization project and asked him to report on these conversations, the complaint said. Mr Musk had a conversation with at least one major investor, but before anything was nearly completed, he began posting on Twitter about the privatization of the company on August 7th.
The second. said that in the days that followed, Mr. Musk did nothing to clarify his statements and threw oil on the fire with additional messages on Twitter.
The case against Mr Musk is notable not only for the speed with which the SEC brought in, but because of the potential severity of the back-up regulators looking for, which could strip him of the ability to continue running the company. he founded. It would also be one of the most serious actions taken by the S.E.C against a corporate executive for statements made on Twitter.
The agency adopted a policy a few years ago that allows business executives to comment on Twitter and other social media. The crackdown sends a stern warning to US companies about what should be said in these communications.
The episode occurred when Musk had made it a personal priority to facilitate the assembly of a crucial new product, the Model 3 roadster. In order to increase production to 5,000 vehicles a week, Is being toured in the Fremont, Calif. Plant, to help solve the bottleneck problems and the like. He oversaw the construction of a massive tent outside the factory walls to house a third assembly line, according to a move that auto manufacturing experts said had never seen before. .
Although the production of Model 3 has accelerated significantly this year, the process is unclear. Some owners complained that cars had arrived with crooked signs and other defects. Hundreds of models 3 have been parked on land in California and other states, some requiring repairs before they can be delivered.
Neal E. Boudette contributed to the report.
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