Elon Musk spoke on the third day of witness testimony in a lawsuit initiated by a group of Tesla investors. The plaintiffs claim that Musk’s Twitter posts in 2018, when he wrote about the possible privatization of Tesla, cost them millions of dollars. During his speech, Musk came close to lamenting the financial losses to Tesla investors that resulted from his tweets.
Asked by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Nicholas Porritt, whether he regretted the harm caused by his tweets, Musk first lashed out at Porritt and his law firm.
“The reality is that Tesla investors are incredibly happy, and you can’t imagine them,” Musk said.
That phrase drew a sharp rebuke from District Court Judge Edward Chen.
Then Musk continued:
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“I never want an investor to lose money. If he did it based on a tweet, I’d probably be sad about it. But investors in the public markets are constantly buying and selling stocks. Overall, they did very well.”
Judge Chen had to besiege Musk several times. Musk tried several times to mention in his testimony that “Tesla is worth 10 times more today” than it was in 2018, despite a court order to refrain from commenting on the company’s current value. He also continued to criticize class-action lawsuits and law firms that litigate such cases, even though Chen warned him that it was against the rules.
The case is expected to continue for a week. During this time, additional witnesses related to Tesla in the past or present should have time to appear. As part of the trial, a jury will have to decide whether Musk is responsible for potentially billions in damages to Tesla investors. If Musk loses, he could be liable for billions of dollars in damages.
Source: The Verge
- On August 7, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he wants to make Tesla a private company and is ready to buy all shares from the stock exchange at a price of $420 per piece. So he wanted to tell about the news to all investors at once instead of privately communicating with the largest of them. After this statement, Tesla shares rose sharply by more than 10% (from 340 to 370 dollars), due to which exchanges had to stop trading.
- After the announcement, the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation, and some investors sued Musk.
- Initially, Musk claimed that financing for privatization was already secured. But later it turned out that negotiations with the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and other potential sources of financing are still ongoing.
- On August 16, The New York Times reported that some board members were concerned about Musk’s health and the state of affairs at Tesla. Musk told the newspaper that after a very difficult year at Tesla, he is very tired, works 120 hours a week and hardly sleeps. At the same time, he does not plan to give up the positions of chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Tesla.
- On August 25, Elon Musk revealed that he really wanted to take Tesla private, but he changed his mind after consulting with investors and financial experts.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission later accused Elon Musk of fraud and demanded that he be banned from managing public companies.
