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

Stock market misvaluation and corporate investment payout

John Fourier

2022-11-15 10:30:00 Tuesday ET

Stock market misvaluation and corporate investment payout

Stock market misvaluation and corporate investment payout The behavioral catering theory suggests that stock market misvaluation can have a first-order

+See More

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is India's equivalent to Warren Buffett in America.

Jonah Whanau

2016-10-19 00:00:00 Wednesday ET

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is India's equivalent to Warren Buffett in America.

India's equivalent to Warren Buffett in America, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, offers several key lessons for stock market investors: When the press o

+See More

AYA Analytica financial health memo (FHM) blog post and podcast content curation with wise words of wisdom

Daisy Harvey

2019-04-30 07:15:00 Tuesday ET

AYA Analytica financial health memo (FHM) blog post and podcast content curation with wise words of wisdom

Through our AYA fintech network platform, we share numerous insightful posts on personal finance, stock investment, and wealth management. Our AYA finte

+See More

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration to prevent the IMF from bailing out several countries that face predatory Chinese loans.

Chanel Holden

2018-02-01 07:38:00 Thursday ET

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration to prevent the IMF from bailing out several countries that face predatory Chinese loans.

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration with a bipartisan proposal to prevent the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from bailing out several countries t

+See More

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

Fiona Sydney

2019-08-02 17:39:00 Friday ET

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment.

The Phillips curve becomes the Phillips cloud with no inexorable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. Stanford finance professor John Cochrane disa

+See More

President Trump tweets that he asks the SEC to assess the practical implications of switching to a 6-month corporate disclosure cycle.

John Fourier

2018-08-17 11:45:00 Friday ET

President Trump tweets that he asks the SEC to assess the practical implications of switching to a 6-month corporate disclosure cycle.

In accordance with the extant corporate disclosure rules and requirements, all U.S. public corporations have to report their balance sheets, income statemen

+See More