SEC Believes Tesla Failed To Watch Over Elon Musk’s Tweets After 2018 Settlement
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been looking into Tesla after two tweets from Elon Musk, the first on May 1 2020, and the second from 2019. Both of these tweets influenced the stock price of Tesla, meaning that Tesla had not correctly vetted them before being published as they were ordered to do after the 2018.
2018 saw Elon Musk tweet about taking Tesla private when the stock price his $420. Elon Musk was later charged with securities fraud and was ordered to pay $20 million, alongside another $20 million from Tesla to make up for this. Musk also stepped down as chairman of the company.
Senior SEC official, Steven Buchholz, has said that “Tesla has abdicated the duties required of it by the court’s order.” It’s no surprise that the CEO’s tweets have been affecting Tesla stock values, as well as cryptocurrency values such as Dogecoin and Bitcoin.
The SEC has asked the company to enforce controls in order “to prevent further shareholder harm.” It’s likely more news of this will erupt in the next few weeks.
