Elon Musk's Lawsuits And Investigations
Elon Musk's legal issues continue to mount, with reports breaking on Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Musk over the Tesla CEO's tweets about taking the car company private. Here's what Musk is dealing with right now:
SEC Charges Musk, Tesla With Fraud
Update: On Thursday, it was reported that the SEC is suing Musk over the take private tweets, charging him with fraud. The suit seeks to bar Musk from running a public company (like Tesla):
Tesla stock dropped sharply after the news broke:
In August, the New York Times broke down how the SEC might approach the investigation, including its most likely route:
The most likely focus of the investigation of the tweet is whether Tesla and Mr. Musk violated Rule 10b-5, the primary antifraud rule, by misleading investors. Because Mr. Musk is a director and an officer of Tesla, his statements can be attributed to the company, especially when it did not immediately issue any corrective disclosure after the Twitter post appeared. Rule 10b-5 prohibits any scheme to defraud, which includes misstatements or omissions of material information that affect the market value of shares. Given how erratic Tesla's stock has been, and how it responded so quickly to Mr. Musk's tweet, showing that the information was material and might have harmed investors if it was misleading does not appear to be difficult.
Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino reported earlier in September that a settlement is likely, but the SEC probe still appears to be in motion, with reports last week that the SEC had spoken to Tesla's largest institutional investor about Musk's tweets:
Tesla Inc's biggest institutional investor said on Wednesday it had spoken to U.S. securities regulators about Elon Musk's plans to take the electric car maker private and that the chief executive needs help running the company. "He needs help, and I mean that psychologically as much as practically," said asset manager Baillie Gifford's James Anderson.
[CNBC]
DOJ Criminal Probe
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice has joined the fray, to determine whether Musk's tweets ventured into criminal territory:
Tesla is under investigation by the Justice Department over public statements made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News' Tom Schoenberg and Matt Robinson report. The criminal probe is running alongside a previously reported civil inquiry by securities regulators.
Tesla stock dropped sharply on the news. More details about the criminal investigation are not yet available.
Class Action Lawsuits
Musk isn't just facing down the DOJ and SEC. Lawsuits from Tesla investors — including some filed by Musk's much-hated Tesla short sellers — are coming:
By Tuesday, three Tesla shareholders had filed proposed class action lawsuits against Musk and Tesla, alleging the CEO tweeted to squeeze Tesla short sellers and goose its stock price. (If that was the plot, it worked for a spell—the stock spiked, then settled back to its previous price.) To win their cases (which may be combined), the plaintiffs will have to prove Musk meant to screw with the stock price. That means they'll have to find a paper trail, or be able to string together enough compelling evidence to convince a jury or judge of what Musk was thinking when he tweeted.
[Wired]
Vernon Unsworth's Libel Lawsuit
Two months after initially calling Vern Unsworth — the British expat in Thailand who assisted in the cave rescue and sparred with Musk over Musk's mini-submarine plan — a "pedo," a few weeks after rehashing the accusation and a little over a week after essentially daring Unsworth to sue him, Musk was hit by a defamation lawsuit:
Beyond alleging Musk's statements are false, Wood accuses him of knowingly making those false statements, a requisite for any defamation case. Pointing to a previous apology tweet, where Musk claimed he made his original accusation about Unsworth in anger, the suit paints the Tesla CEO as a vindictive billionaire "apparently angered by his efforts being rejected or not be recognized." "The False and Defamatory Accusations include accusations by Musk that are the product of intentional misrepresentation of comments by third parties," the lawsuit reads. "Musk published the False and Defamatory Accusations without any reliable or credible sources of information."
Trouble With The NLRB
Musk's apparent anti-unionization efforts have earned him the scrutiny of the National Labor Review Board:
The United Auto Workers union has been trying to organize workers at the company's main factory in Fremont, California, for years. It's filed numerous complaints about Tesla's tactics to fend off its efforts. Some of UAW's concerns have been echoed in complaints filed by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor laws. The NLRB filed a new complaint last week accusing Musk of violating labor laws with a tweet on May 20 that threatened to strip employees of their stock options should they vote for the union. It said the tweet could be seen as interfering with employees' rights to freely decide whether to join a union.
