Elon musk will pay billions to Tesla shareholders if he loses
Key Takeaways:
- Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is being sued, and the jury has given him varying ratings; few think he is smart.
- The Tesla CEO argued, however, that he did not engage in securities fraud because he believed he had received funding from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund.
- Mr Musk had argued that the trial should be moved to Texas because a fair jury could not be selected in San Francisco.
The jury feels he is extra smart and narcissistic. If he loses the case, he will come under pressure for sure. Elon Musk will pay billions to tesla shareholders for sure of his losses.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit, and jurors share their mixed reviews on the Tesla Boss; few consider him smart, whereas others take him as “off his rocker”.
The Tesla boss says that he cannot get a fair trial in San Francisco, as the shareholders of Tesla are suing him for manipulating Tesla shares.
The case revolves around his tweet from 2018 saying he would take Tesla private.
Because of the Tweet, US regulators removed Mr Musk as chairman of Tesla.
On August 7th, 2018, he tweeted that he had “funding secured” to bring the company private in a $72 billion (£58.7 billion) buyout. Such a deal was abandoned.
The company Shareholders say that the tweet caused big losses as the stock price fluctuated.
The Tesla CEO, however, contended that he did not commit securities fraud because he thought he had obtained funding from Saudi Arabia’s Investment Fund.
One prospective juror responded, “I think he’s a little off his rocker, on a personal level,” to a question about their ability to maintain objectivity.
Another potential juror added, “I truly believe you can’t judge a person until you walk in their shoes,” and added that Mr Musk seemed “narcissistic.”
Another person claimed that because Mr Musk is “willing to take risks… that’s my image of him,” he has a “mercenary” personality.
Yet another described him as a “smart, successful pioneer,” while another described him as a “fast-rising businessman.”
According to Yahoo, one person said, “I don’t think he is a very likeable person.
In response to the judge’s question about whether this meant she would not be fair to him, the woman said, “A majority of people are not necessarily likeable people. Sometimes I don’t like my husband.”
In the end, a jury of nine was selected, and the trial is scheduled to start on Wednesday.
Mr Musk had argued that a fair jury could not be selected in San Francisco and that the trial should be moved to Texas.
He claimed that mass firings impacted numerous employees in the Californian city at Twitter, a business he recently acquired.
As per Mr Musk’s legal team, a sizable majority of prospective jurors had a negative opinion of the billionaire.
However, the judge announced Friday that the trial would proceed in California.
Musk might need to pay billions of dollars in charge if a San Francisco jury rules in favour of shareholders.
For the tweet, he already paid the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $20 million, and Tesla was required to pay an additional $20 million.
His tweet, demonstrating the incredible power of Twitter’s 140-character limit, has become legendary in Silicon Valley.
Legal experts predicted that Mr Musk would have a challenging time winning the case and predicted that the SEC fine he paid would be used against him. Jury trials in fraud cases are notoriously challenging to predict, though.
Mr Musk might testify in the case while being sworn in. CEO of Oracle Larry Ellison and media tycoon James Murdoch are on the list of witnesses.
