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Elon Musk Should Be Held In Contempt For Tweet, SEC Tells Judge (fastcompany.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the now-he's-done-it dept.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to hold CEO Elon Musk in contempt for breaking terms of a settlement agreement with a tweet. The SEC cited an "inaccurate" February 19 tweet about production. Musk tweeted alongside a photo: "4000 Tesla cars loading in SF for Europe." He replied to the tweet adding: "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019." Fast Company reports: It's that "will make around 500K in 2019" part that angered the SEC, which had this to say in legal papers filed with a Manhattan federal court: "He once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers, including members of the press, and made this inaccurate information available to anyone with Internet access." The SEC says the tweet violated an agreement that was part of a settlement Tesla made with the regulator last year. Musk promised to consult with Tesla's board before he made any statements on social media that could affect the stock price of the company. Tesla also agreed to pay $40 million in penalties and Musk agreed to step down as chairman of the board.

1 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Fake News by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think Steve Jobs was an asshole, but I also consider him a hero and more importantly a genius.

    And I think Elon Musk is an idiot, but he's also a genius...and a hero. Okay, maybe not a hero, but I'm jealous of his success and I really do wish I had a Tesla and also a rocket that could launch me to Mars.

    I'll get a Tesla sooner or later. As soon as the transmission falls out of my 20 year old Detroit garbage which the "Check Engine" light tells me is due to happen any mile now.

    I do keep hearing horror stories about Teslas, but most of them sound overblown and I've been hearing horror stories about cars all my life. Did you ever hear the one about the Pinto?

    I only say Musk is an idiot because he sometimes blurts out stupid stuff that he probably wouldn't say if he weren't so stoned (kind of like me). All the problems with Tesla...quality control, production numbers, whatever...those are all expected from a relatively new car manufacturer and when was the last time a new car manufacturer ramped up to the level of Ford or GM?

    Tesla still has a long way to go, but when Ford recalls nearly 2 million vehicles.... I dunno...I guess when Ford recalls 2 million vehicles I'm glad I drive a Chrysler.

    So Ford just recalled 1.8 million vehicles which nearly equals their annual production of 1.9 million vehicles. Holy shit! Can you imagine the bad press that would ensue if Tesla had to do that? But with Ford, hardly anyone blinks an eye.