US Court: Musk's Tweet About Securing Funds for Tesla Delisting Is a Lie

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
[Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was sued in a class action lawsuit after tweeting in 2018 that he had secured funding to take the company private. A U.S. court has now ruled that "Musk lied knowing the statement was false."

On the 17th (local time), Bloomberg News and others reported that the U.S. District Court in San Francisco recently agreed that Musk's tweet on August 7, 2018, lacked a reasonable basis to be considered accurate or not misleading. This was stated in documents submitted by Tesla shareholders' attorneys on the 15th, indicating that the ruling was made on the 1st.

Previously, in August 2018, Musk tweeted two sentences saying, "Considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share (about 520,000 won). Funding secured," which shook the U.S. stock market. However, three weeks later, Musk retracted the tweet, causing significant stock price volatility and market confusion.

Following this, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated the matter and charged Musk with securities fraud, but later Musk and Tesla reached a settlement. Both Musk and Tesla paid $20 million in fines each, and Musk was subjected to separate restrictions related to his use of Twitter.

In relation to this, some Tesla shareholders filed a class action lawsuit claiming they suffered losses due to Musk's fraud and sued him and Tesla. They claim victory following the court's ruling. Bloomberg noted that theoretically, the damages in this lawsuit could reach up to $12 billion, but it is expected that the actual settlement will be around $260 million to $380 million.

The documents citing the court's ruling were submitted to request a preliminary injunction to prevent Musk from making further public statements following remarks he made at the global lecture platform 'TED Conference' held in Vancouver, Canada, on the 14th.

At the conference, Musk referred to SEC officials as "those bastards" and claimed that the SEC launched a public investigation despite knowing he had secured funding. He also argued that Tesla's financial situation was precarious at the time, and the bank threatened to stop operational funding unless the SEC reached a settlement, which would have led Tesla to immediate bankruptcy, thus forcing him to make illegal concessions to the SEC.

Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, stated, "The truth that Musk considered and could have taken Tesla private will never change," adding, "What remains now are lawyers trying to make money and people trying to suppress freedom of expression to prevent that truth from coming out."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.