Elon Musk and Tesla Found Not Liable in Securities Fraud Trial over ‘Funding Secured’ Tweets
Posted on 02/03/2023
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was found not liable in a certified shareholder class action lawsuit stemming from 2018 tweets by a jury in a San Francisco federal court. These tweets were in regard in which Elon Musk messaged that “funding secured” was confirmed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – Public Investment Fund at US$ 420 per share. The deal never materialized. The nine-member panel used about around two hours of deliberations to knock out claims that Elon Musk’s August 2018 Twitter posts misled shareholders.
“He doesn’t think ahead of time in that rushed moment that this could be interpreted differently and what it means to him,” Musk’s attorney told the jury earlier on on February 3, 2023. “In that moment he didn’t think, ‘how could my words be interpreted differently by you than it means to me.’”
“You have to assess this in context – he’s considering taking it private and the issue is will it actually take it forward,” Musk’s attorney said. “No fraud has ever been built on the back of a consideration.”
Keywords: Tesla Inc., Twitter Inc.