Source link On Wednesday, Elon Musk, the CEO of electric car startup Tesla, said that a tweet he wrote about the company was “genuine” and the product of his own consideration. This statement was made during a lawsuit where the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Tesla of fraud over the tweet.
Musk said in the statement made in response to the complaint filed by the SEC that he “did not make any statement with the intent to trigger a market reaction or with knowledge that it could.” He insisted that the tweet was “carefully considered” and “genuine” and that he had “made [his] decision entirely independently of any outside influence”.
This marks just the latest incident of Musk having difficulty navigating the publicly traded meme-culture of Tesla, as some of his tweets to followers about the company have drawn controversy in the past.
Musk and Tesla were accused of securities fraud after Musk tweeted a series of tweets on August 7th that Tesla may be taken private at a price of $420 per share. The lawsuit claims that Musk was “falsely representing” and “fabricating” material facts about the company’s attempts to go private.
The SEC alleges that the tweet caused “significant market disruption” by inadvertently bumping up the stock price of Tesla by 6 percent in the following days.
Should the court rule against Musk, he faces a possible fine and disgorgement of profits gained because of the tweet. In his sworn statement, however, Musk seems to be intent on proving that he had no malicious intent and that his statement was honest and genuine. This will be keenly watched, as this potential scandal has caused a great deal of discussion and debate amongst investors around the world.
