BREAKING! SEC Sues Tesla And Elon Musk For Fraud!

Big oil isn't quite yet ready to go electric.

NO. Elon screwed up.

Jalopnik posted this 35 minutes ago...you guys are slow!

Actually times stamps show about a 2 to 3 minute difference, between the two.

Ouch, that sucks. Still innocent until proven guilty though.

You think so? You are WRONG. The sick psychotic progressive liberals are throwing a monkey wrench into the U.S. constitution and the sick bastards are pushing the GUILTY UNTIL the defendent proves innocent.

Yes, the liberals are truly working to destroy the U.S. republic. So according to the the Democrat party of nut cases, Musk is GUILTY.

Not anymore. It's now guilty until proven innocent.

Sorry Skytop = but YOU are clearly the one who is wrong here. Since ALL of the statements Musk made are public - we already know what he did - and what was wrong. He is not innocent by any means - too many people are witnesses to the crime(Millions of people actually) BUT - Musk literally cannot prove himself innocent since he has already admitted to the statements. And that is the problem with your statement - he ADMITS he did it.

THe problem is - Musk - a CEO of a major Publicly traded company - actually did announce a potential buyout to go private and actually did say that the financing was in place. This is not in question - he actually said it - He ADMITS he said it - and it was NOT TRUE by any real legal means. This is simply ADMITTED securities fraud - no matter how you want to look at it. THe fact that he later attempted to withdraw from the "certainty" of his statement is too late - the damage is already done. Any newbie lawyer could tell you that is a NO NO. It clearly affected the stock market and the price of Tesla stock at the time. People who were "shorting" the stock - lost millions. This is both a federal crime -a corporate crime - as well as creating personal liability which likely will also result in billions of dollars in private lawsuits from investors. THe lawsuits are just starting. Some of them will be personal against his assets.

Not only is this going to affect his position at Tesla - it is also going to do the same at any other public company he runs - like his Rocket Company.

And note - this is happening under a REPUBLICAN Administration - has NOTHING to do with Liberals - it is merely the law - and it has been the law regarding public stock trading companies since the SEC was founded during the great depression to protect stock holders of public companies.

Tom, SpaceX is private, not public. He could stay on there,unless he needs to sell it to pay off legal penalties. His customer,the government may not want to deal with SpaceX if he is there.

Under our system Elon has the right to plead innocent even though has said that he did it, and the SEC has to prove intent to defraud.It will be interesting.

Worst news for Tesla is the SEC wants Musk out: "Ordering that Defendant be prohibited from acting as an officer or director of any issuer that has a class of securities registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act..." I suspect Musk will settle the case by paying a fine and stepping down from the Board and management.

And the DOJ hasn't even filed their criminal complaint yet.

This may well trigger chapter 11 bankruptcy. I don't see how any financial institution would help with a capital raise until the SEC/DOJ/lawsuits are pending.

Kicking Musk out will be good for Tesla. Tesla needs to marry up with a bigger manufacturer. GM should consider absorbing Tesla and co-brand it with Cadillac.

Ironically the Shorts are winning, exactly what Elon didn't want.

I had a feeling this was coming. Elon Musk frauded investors by telling them something which any reasonable person in his position would have known was false regarding having capital lined up to take Tesla private.

The bottom line is there was no funding secured by Musk or Tesla and lengthy conversations with potential investors do not amount to such. There was never any written agreement for funding presented to Tesla's board.

Elon Musk committed fraud and it will be the end for him as CEO of Tesla.

You have to be a little off kilter to challenge the auto and rocket industries, his concept of what's reasonable is 10x a normal person. Did he f up, absolutely...

Autopsies needs to cool it with all these Tesla posts. The comments always get political and hostile. Tesla is an American company that makes a fantastic product. I never understood the hate.

And so you pour gasoline on the fire?

Yes - Elan can plead innocent - but that is just another waste of our money - it won't be interesting - Tesla cannot wait for a Trial they will have to settle - because they will be cut off from the financial markets until they do - and if they need any cash - they won't be able to raise it.

The problem is the individual investor lawsuits - for which Elan is also personally responsible. The stock moved 12% that day - and Billions of dollars are involved. Tesla itself does not have that much free cash.

Why are all the Tesla fanboys up in arms about this. This has nothing to do with the cars, or the company, or a conspiracy by oil companies. CEOs of publicly traded companies can not make materially false statements that affect share prices. Tweeting that he is going to take tesla private at $$$/share and claiming to have funding and then not doing it is exactly this.

He will wind up paying a healthy fine. The SEC rules are there to protect investors thus making the market place stable. You have to be able to prove - document - you have the financing before you blurt it out. He has had a revolving door of CFOs due to his lack of control. Maybe they would have reminded him of this rule if they stuck around long enough.