Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), stepped up his criticism of the US securities regulator on Thursday, labelling SEC officials “bastards” for filing fraud charges against him over his 2018 tweets about taking the firm private.
Musk voiced his concerns toward the SEC during remarks at the TED Conference in Vancouver on the same day he made headlines by announcing a $43 billion cash buyout offer for social media startup Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).
Musk, the world’s richest man, according to Forbes, said funding to take his electric vehicle firm private was already in place when he tweeted, but the agency “pursued the active public investigation anyway.”
“So I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully. Those bastards, “The audience was told by Musk.
Musk claimed that he felt compelled to reach an agreement with the SEC because banks threatened to stop providing funding if he did not, thereby declaring Tesla bankrupt.
Musk claimed that he felt compelled to reach an agreement with the SEC because banks threatened to stop providing funding if he did not, thereby declaring Tesla bankrupt.
“I was forced to admit that I lied to save Tesla’s life, and that’s the only reason,” Musk continued.
To satisfy SEC accusations that Musk deceived investors on Aug. 7, 2018, by announcing on Twitter that he had “financing secured” to take Tesla private, Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million civil fines, and Musk stepped down as Tesla’s chairman. His funding tweets “lacked an adequate basis in fact,” according to the SEC at the time.
Musk was also required to acquire pre-clearance from Tesla lawyers for tweets and other public statements that could be material to Tesla under a similar consent agreement.
On Thursday, an SEC representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Musk turned down an invitation to join Twitter’s board of directors last Saturday after disclosing his existing 9.1% shareholding. According to securities experts, he was supposed to report that he owned an interest in Twitter greater than 5% and is likely to face regulatory scrutiny for missing the time to do so and filing the improper form.
Musk claimed he made the offer because he feels “it’s really important for there to be an inclusive venue for free speech” when he announced his Twitter takeover effort. Musk believes Twitter’s algorithm should be open-source, and that the code that powers it should be published on Github, a Microsoft-owned platform for sharing software development code.
