Elon Musk will confront SEC in court in April
Lawyers for Tesla boss Elon Musk, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission will face each other in a court in Manhattan next month over the regulator's call for Musk to be held in contempt.
TESLA
$539.60
17:39 26/03/20
US District Judge Alison Nathan scheduled the court date for 4 April after both sides said they saw no need for an evidentiary hearing.
Musk was accused by the SEC of violating his October 2018 fraud settlement with the regulator after he tweeted on 19 February that Tesla could build up to 500,000 cars in 2019 and later changed his statement in another tweet.
In the October settlement Musk agreed not to tweet about Tesla without approval from the company’s lawyers first. This occurred after Musk tweeted that the company had secured the funding necessary to go private, which later proved to be not quite true.
He and the company were also forced to by $20m in civil fines each and for Musk to step down as Tesla chairman.
This time around, the SEC said that tweet was improper because Musk did not get advance approval from Tesla. Although Musk’s lawyers have said the tweet was not material, and simply repeated a target for the company that had already been publicly discussed in January.
If Musk is found guilty of contempt, he could face a fine, further limits to his social media use and his removal as Tesla CEO.