SEC asks judge to hold Tesla's Elon Musk in contempt, saying he violated settlement deal

[Eugene]

Last edited Mon Feb 25, 2019, 10:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post

By Renae Merle and Drew Harwell February 25 at 8:34 PM

NEW YORK -- The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked a federal judge to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt for violating the terms of a recent settlement agreement, rekindling tensions between the celebrity billionaire and the country’s regulators.

The SEC accused Musk of breaking a deal to seek preapproval of any potentially market-moving tweets about the car company when he tweeted on Feb. 19 that Tesla would make around 500,000 cars this year. Four hours later, he tweeted that he “meant to say” the cars’ weekly production rate would equal up to about 500,000 on an annual basis but that the total car deliveries this year would be closer to around 400,000.

The next day, the SEC asked the company whether the tweets had been reviewed before being published, a requirement of a settlement agreement Musk reached late last year. The first tweet had not been preapproved, the company said. Instead, Tesla’s attorneys’ saw the tweet after it was published and then reached out Musk to draft a second, corrective tweet, the SEC said in a motion filed in the U.S. Southern District Court.

“As a result of his failure to comply with the [settlement, Musk] once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers,” the SEC said.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2019/02/25/sec-asks-judge-to-hold-teslas-elon-musk-in-contempt-saying-he-violated-agreement-on-social-media-posts/

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EDIT: article updated at link

Previous headline: SEC asks judge to hold Tesla’s Elon Musk in contempt, saying he violated agreement on social media posts

[okaawhatever]

1. While this may seem small, I think the impact will be much larger than we imagine. The CEO's

have been making their own rules for too long now. Time for a judge to say, laws apply to billionaires too.

[Eugene]

2. Federal judge orders Elon Musk to prove he shouldn't be held in contempt

Source: Washington Post

Federal judge orders Elon Musk to prove he shouldn’t be held in contempt

The SEC has accused the billionaire of not living up to terms of settlement reached last year

By Renae Merle February 26 at 12:52 PM

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to explain by March 11 why he should not be held in contempt for violating the terms of a recent settlement agreement.

The SEC accused Musk of breaking a deal to seek preapproval of any potentially market-moving tweets about the car company when he tweeted on Feb. 19 that Tesla would make about 500,000 cars this year. Four hours later, Musk tweeted that he “meant to say” the company’s weekly production rate would equal up to about 500,000 on an annual basis but that the total car deliveries this year would be closer to about 400,000.

The first tweet had not been preapproved as required, the SEC said in a motion filed in New York’s U.S. Southern District Court. Instead, Tesla’s attorneys saw the tweet after it was published and then reached out to Musk to draft a corrective second tweet.

In a letter to the SEC included in the motion, Tesla said that Musk’s initial tweet about production levels was in line with what the company had told investors during a January 2019 call and was “intended to recapitulate” that information. “SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript ... How embarrassing,” Musk said in a tweet late Monday.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/02/26/elon-musk-fires-back-sec-says-something-is-broken-agency/