WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk reportedly could lose his top post at the luxury automaker as a suspension for violation of his settlement deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CNBC, citing security lawyers, reported that Musk is facing pretty significant fines and a possible suspension as CEO for recent activity on Twitter that federal regulators said violated his September 29 settlement with the SEC.
Meanwhile, Musk and Tesla have until March 11 to respond to an order from a judge explaining why the court shouldn't hold him in contempt after he tweeted about Tesla's production forecasts for the Model 3.
The SEC claims that Musk broke the deal that requires him to pre-approve any public tweets that could affect investor decisions.
On February 19, Musk tweeted: 'Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019,' clarifying a few hours later: 'Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.'
That tweet drew the ire of the SEC, which said in court papers filed in federal court in Manhattan: 'He once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers, including members of the press, and made this inaccurate information available to anyone with internet access.'
Last fall, Musk settled a fraud investigation with the SEC over another tweet - the now-infamous 'funding secured' claim about going private- and as part of that deal agreed that Tesla would have oversight and pre-approval over his tweets that are material to the company. He also agreed to pay a $20 million fine and gave up his seat as Tesla chairman.
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