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The jury found Elon Musk not guilty of misleading investors with his tweet that he had wanted to take Tesla private. Investors who filed a class action lawsuit were unable to prove that Musk harmed them with his tweets.
The jury dismissed investor claims that Elon Musk violated federal securities law when he tweeted in 2018 about taking Tesla private. This means that Musk is found not guilty and has won a multi-year lawsuit initiated by investors who tried to blame Tesla's CEO for their poor investment decisions. A nine-member jury said the class-action investors failed to prove that Musk harmed them by tweeting about a possible deal.
“I was trying my best to keep shareholders informed and ensure that all shareholders had the same information,” Musk told jurors.
This case has been going on for over four years. He and Tesla paid $20 million each in 2018 to settle a securities fraud charge brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweets. Since then, Musk has been critical of the SEC, describing how he came under pressure as banks threatened his company and he was not ready to lose Tesla. Only because of this, he made a deal with the SEC to settle the matter.
© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
