For those wondering about the tweet storm that has been coming from Elon Musk lately, and if he could potentially get in hot water because of it, a new report in the Wall Street Journal says it sure appears like a possibility.
Specifically, there are two tweets Musk sent in the past two years that have been tagged by the SEC. Musk and Tesla had an agreement in place with the government that required Tesla lawyers to approve of certain posts he makes.
Musk initially got the attention of the U.S. Government back in 2018 when he casually tweeted a message that he was considering taking Tesla private. The SEC charged him with fraud.
Musk then agreed to a court-approved deal to settle the charges, and included in the deal was his agreeing to have his lawyers review all social media posts containing information “material” to Tesla shareholders.
Included in the list of tweets that needed approval were posts about Tesla’s financial condition, production numbers, or new business lines.
The SEC flagged two tweets from 2019 and 2020. One was about Tesla’s solar roof production volumes, the other was about the stock price. Neither had received the pre-approval of Tesla attorneys.
The specific tweets weren’t mentioned, but the WSJ noted one from 2019 where Musk posted Tesla was “hoping to manufacture 1000 solar roofs/week by end of this year.”
It’s not known now if the SEC will take action against Musk or Tesla. Back in 2018, before the agreement that came in the settlement, the SEC sought to remove Musk as CEO and chairman. He agreed to step down as chairman but keep the CEO role, while not admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
Tesla’s stock took a dive in the trading hours after the report came out, but by early evening on Tuesday it had stabilized, and was only down 0.5% for the day.
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