The SEC sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company.

Amy Hamilton

2018-09-29 12:39:00 Sat ET

The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company. Federal regulators accuse Musk of misleading stock market investors with false public statements. This regulatory move can potentially oust Musk out of his current chief executive leadership at the electric carmaker Tesla. The S.E.C. files a recent lawsuit in the federal court in New York to accuse Musk of committing fraud by making false public statements that may inadvertently be detrimental to shareholder value.

This lawsuit seeks to bar Musk, who is both the CEO and executive chairman at Tesla, from serving as an executive director of public corporations such as Tesla. This punishment is one of the most serious remedies that the S.E.C. can impose against corporate executive incumbents. From a regulatory viewpoint, Musk might be reckless in not knowing the fact that his public statements can mislead stock market investors who maintain an active interest in Tesla shares. Both in truth and in fact, Musk has never confirmed any key deal terms such as deal price and stock exchange etc with any relevant source of external finance. Tesla shares tumble 12% in direct response to this S.E.C. lawsuit.

The S.E.C. eventually settles this lawsuit with Elon Musk who has to relinquish his chairman role but remains the CEO with complete corporate control at Tesla.

As part of this swift legal settlement, Musk and Tesla have to pay hefty fines of $20 million each. Musk and Tesla neither admit nor deny any egregious mistakes that the S.E.C. alleges in recent times.

Elon Musk ultimately has to abort his previous plan to transform Tesla into a private company. This case sets a landmark precedent for CEOs and executive chairmen who might inadvertently erode shareholder value via their erroneous tweets, public statements, articles, blogs, and posts etc.

S.E.C. regulatory scrutiny and oversight thus serve as a safety valve that prevents CEOs and executive chairmen or chairwomen from social engagement that might result in false public statements.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Lean enterprises often try to incubate disruptive innovations with iterative continuous improvements and inventions over time.

Joseph Corr

2020-06-03 09:31:00 Wednesday ET

Lean enterprises often try to incubate disruptive innovations with iterative continuous improvements and inventions over time.

Lean enterprises often try to incubate disruptive innovations with iterative continuous improvements and inventions over time. Trevor Owens and Obie Fern

+See More

AYA fintech finbuzz analytic report on the global macro economic outlook Summer-Fall 2019

Andy Yeh Alpha

2019-08-07 08:32:00 Wednesday ET

AYA fintech finbuzz analytic report on the global macro economic outlook Summer-Fall 2019

Our fintech finbuzz analytic report shines fresh light on the current global economic outlook. As of Summer-Fall 2019, the current analytic report focuses o

+See More

Central banks learn to weigh the monetary policy trade-offs between output and inflation expectations and macro-financial stress conditions.

Becky Berkman

2026-01-31 10:31:00 Saturday ET

Central banks learn to weigh the monetary policy trade-offs between output and inflation expectations and macro-financial stress conditions.

  In recent years, several central banks conduct, assess, and discuss the core lessons, rules, and challenges from their monetary policy framework rev

+See More

We can learn much from the frugal habits and lifestyles of several billionaires.

Joseph Corr

2016-10-01 00:00:00 Saturday ET

We can learn much from the frugal habits and lifestyles of several billionaires.

We can learn much from the frugal habits and lifestyles of several billionaires on earth. Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, still l

+See More

President Trump meets Chinese President Xi for better economic reforms.

Rose Prince

2017-03-21 09:37:00 Tuesday ET

President Trump meets Chinese President Xi for better economic reforms.

Trump and Xi meet in the most important summit on earth this year. Trump has promised to retaliate against China's currency misalignment, steel trade

+See More

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties.

Rose Prince

2018-10-15 09:33:00 Monday ET

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties.

Several pharmaceutical companies now switch their primary focus from generic prescription drugs to medical specialties such as cardiovascular medications an

+See More