Over the Tweet by Tesla in 2018, Elon Musk faces fraud trial
Key Takeaways:
- Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in the world, will go on trial on Tuesday for allegedly manipulating the stock market with a tweet.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles, will face trial on Tuesday for reportedly using a tweet to modify the stock market, despite his request for the case to be moved out of California being denied by a federal judge.
When Musk tweeted in August 2018 that he had the funds to take Tesla private, the price of the company’s stock shot up dramatically. This was when the case started.
The company’s shareholders swiftly sued Musk for allegedly costing them billions of dollars after tweeting that financing was “secured” to buy out every shareholder.
As per the court representative, Judge Edward Chen declined to transfer the case to Texas on Friday, where Musk moved the Tesla company’s corporate headquarters, and also jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
The multibillionaire, who bought Twitter in late October and has come under fire for his decisions since taking over the social media giant, was defended by lawyers who insisted that he wouldn’t get a proper trial in San Francisco.
After assuming control of Twitter, Musk changed the site’s content moderation policies, firing more than half of the 7,500 staff, most of whom were located in San Francisco.
In a filing, the CEO’s attorneys argued that “the local media has saturated this district for the last several months with biassed and negative stories about Mr Musk that have cultivated… highly prejudicial biases in the jury pool.”
The attorneys asserted that, in contrast to how they typically covered these stories, the local media had accused Mr Musk of breaking the law and blamed him personally for the reductions.
As per Bloomberg, Judge Chen expressed trust in her ability to choose impartial jurors during the hearing.
Authorities have already noted Musk’s one-sentence tweet from last year.
Musk has been ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also regulates the US stock market, to resign as chairman of Tesla’s board and pay a $20 million fine.
