Elon Musk will have to prove the funding at time of Tesla buyout tweet or risk jail like Martha Stewart

Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Harvey Pitt says Tesla CEO Elon Musk faces potential civil and criminal charges. Elon Musk needs to demonstrate that at the time he tweeted about the Tesla going private that Elon had a legally enforceable commitment to fund $420 a share, or $70 billion.

Elon indicating that he had funding for $20-30 billion might work. He already own over 30 million shares and Elon was talking about a buyout structure where shareholders could choose not to sell.

Pitt says the penalty for a stock fraud conviction could range from monetary damages to jail time, though he stopped short of predicting Musk would end up behind bars. Martha Stewart served five months in federal prison on insider trading charges.

Elon will have a final fight with the short sellers of Tesla. Those investors could lose hundreds of millions to $2 to $3 billion because of a buyout. They have already started lawsuits against Elon.

161 thoughts on “Elon Musk will have to prove the funding at time of Tesla buyout tweet or risk jail like Martha Stewart”

  1. I agree this is probably a case of inflamed ego. One things is being repeatedly compared with a fictional character and another one is believing it. Hard to avoid though, if you are actually doing science fictional-like things, but keeping a cool head even when doing unbelievable stuff is a must for any such people. If anything, he should learn a lesson about going to Twitter in person (ha ha, yeah right).

  2. I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available, rather than have a legally enforceable contract. Either way, this sort of thing is exactly what the founding fathers of the republic did not have in mind. Martha Stewart went to prison because of statements she made to federal officials when they were investigating her, although she was not under oath. This demonstrates once again why you should never speak to law enforcement of any kind. Any sort of statement of fact you make can be used to drag you into court, whether you lied or not.

  3. I definitely agree that he was being foolish. He should consult and heed his lawyers when taking such outside the box actions.

  4. Spacex is structurally well-fenced outside Tesla. However, Musk is still the major shareholder. I suspect Spacex probably has material adverse change clauses regarding owners/execs. Whether other private shareholders want to make a fuss over this, who knows. But he now has a serious brand problem, which is far worse than legal or ownership issues.

  5. Elon is above the law. No worries. Certainly no jail time. The parasites might drink until their bellies bloat, but he’ll survive and still be extremely rich, and less showy. Tony Stark movies got to his head. 420, Ambien, and wine got to his head.

  6. Ugh. I don’t want to agree with this assessment but yes he is either on the hook for the shorts or he is going to jail. I hope SpaceX is well insulated from Mr Musk and Tesla. Mr Musk needs to hire the best lawyers he can find. Its ok to pay them $20 million… it is cheap compared to the $2 billion shorts.

  7. That could throw sand in the engine of SpaceX’s plans, but I guess Gwynne Shotwell can keep the ship going if Elon goes behind bars for a while. Sorry Elon fans, but it can happen. He really should have avoided to be directly in front of Twitter and he should taken care of his running mouth.

  8. I agree this is probably a case of inflamed ego. One things is being repeatedly compared with a fictional character and another one is believing it.Hard to avoid though if you are actually doing science fictional-like things but keeping a cool head even when doing unbelievable stuff is a must for any such people.If anything he should learn a lesson about going to Twitter in person (ha ha yeah right).

  9. I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available rather than have a legally enforceable contract. Either way this sort of thing is exactly what the founding fathers of the republic did not have in mind.Martha Stewart went to prison because of statements she made to federal officials when they were investigating her although she was not under oath. This demonstrates once again why you should never speak to law enforcement of any kind. Any sort of statement of fact you make can be used to drag you into court whether you lied or not.

  10. I definitely agree that he was being foolish. He should consult and heed his lawyers when taking such outside the box actions.

  11. Spacex is structurally well-fenced outside Tesla. However Musk is still the major shareholder. I suspect Spacex probably has material adverse change clauses regarding owners/execs. Whether other private shareholders want to make a fuss over this who knows. But he now has a serious brand problem which is far worse than legal or ownership issues.

  12. Elon is above the law. No worries. Certainly no jail time. The parasites might drink until their bellies bloat but he’ll survive and still be extremely rich and less showy. Tony Stark movies got to his head. 420 Ambien and wine got to his head.

  13. Ugh. I don’t want to agree with this assessment but yes he is either on the hook for the shorts or he is going to jail. I hope SpaceX is well insulated from Mr Musk and Tesla.Mr Musk needs to hire the best lawyers he can find. Its ok to pay them $20 million… it is cheap compared to the $2 billion shorts.

  14. That could throw sand in the engine of SpaceX’s plans but I guess Gwynne Shotwell can keep the ship going if Elon goes behind bars for a while.Sorry Elon fans but it can happen. He really should have avoided to be directly in front of Twitter and he should taken care of his running mouth.

  15. Personally, I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX. His other enterprises, colorful personality and silicon valley jerk-boss persona are of little interest to me. Same if he’s multi-talented and/or stressed/crazy or not. But in this particular case, he may have committed a punishable felony. That’s a big problem for any big SpaceX plans, given he’s the boss of that company. And that’s all I really care about in this whole affair. I he gets out of this unscathed, I will be relieved and happy for him and for the ongoing SpaceX prospects. If not, well, that’s a pity. Let’s move our interest to the next guy capable of delivering reusable launchers then.

  16. Martha Stewart served five months in federal prison on insider trading charges.” Not quite. She served time for “lying to federal officials”. Yes, it was in the context of an insider trading investigation, but, IIRC, she wasn’t actually convicted of “insider trading”.

  17. I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available” What you THINK and what the law is are two entirely different things. And what you think is not what every securities lawyer is saying. Nor the SEC.

  18. He’ll be too busy learning other things while in prison: Musk Meets His New Cell Mate: Musk: “Hi! Name’s Elon. Who are you?” Cell Mate: “Bend over!” Musk: “Nice to meet you, Mr. Over. Been here long?” Mr. Over starts unbuckling his pants. Musk: “Now, now…I am sure we an work out a deal. How about a Model 3 Tesla when you get out of here? You know, the one that has problems with the bumper falling off after being in the rain?” Mr. Over advances towards Musk. “How about a ride into space! No…wait! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  19. Hahahahahah! I am looking more correct with each passing day…while Tommy Perkins/Luca Mazzi/Matteo Martini the Troll is being exposed for being a complete liar and fool. Not good to be a Musk Fluffer right now. It IS good to be a short seller of Tesla that got burned. They will get not only compensatory damages but up to 3-4 times that in punitive damages. Tesla is looking at potential damages in the hundreds of millions, I bet.

  20. If you’re a lifelong workaholic with kids, multiple lawsuits, a company revolutionizing the odds of jailbreaking from our gravity well and making Mars and beyond affordable, another company accelerating a whole spectrum of mainstream EVs and energy storage, and a few more orgs working tunneling Earth/Mars and future proofing AI and AI-human interfaces, and you do it all in part fueled from being a smart kid with big dreams in an adult body … It kinda gets to be a bit much and anyone who isn’t under that much pressure to deliver on every one of those commitments, probably isn’t actually putting themselves in his shoes. From someone who’s actually known him in person for a while, instead of the usual anonymous internet psychiatry:

  21. ? Are lawyers not parasites? Is there no history of lawyers bleeding companies to death like a tick infestation? Has Elon not publicly mentioned that he uses recreational drugs? Have you not seen wealthy Americans be above the law?

  22. Personally I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX. His other enterprises colorful personality and silicon valley jerk-boss persona are of little interest to me. Same if he’s multi-talented and/or stressed/crazy or not.But in this particular case he may have committed a punishable felony. That’s a big problem for any big SpaceX plans given he’s the boss of that company. And that’s all I really care about in this whole affair.I he gets out of this unscathed I will be relieved and happy for him and for the ongoing SpaceX prospects. If not well that’s a pity. Let’s move our interest to the next guy capable of delivering reusable launchers then.

  23. Martha Stewart served five months in federal prison on insider trading charges.””Not quite. She served time for “”””lying to federal officials””””. Yes”” it was in the context of an insider trading investigation but IIRC”” she wasn’t actually convicted of “”””insider trading””””.”””

  24. I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available””What you THINK and what the law is are two entirely different things.And what you think is not what every securities lawyer is saying. Nor the SEC.”””

  25. He’ll be too busy learning other things while in prison:Musk Meets His New Cell Mate:Musk: Hi! Name’s Elon. Who are you?””Cell Mate: “”””Bend over!””””Musk: “”””Nice to meet you”””” Mr. Over. Been here long?””””Mr. Over starts unbuckling his pants.Musk: “”””Now”” now…I am sure we an work out a deal. How about a Model 3 Tesla when you get out of here? You know”” the one that has problems with the bumper falling off after being in the rain?””””Mr. Over advances towards Musk.””””How about a ride into space! No…wait! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”””””””

  26. Hahahahahah!I am looking more correct with each passing day…while Tommy Perkins/Luca Mazzi/Matteo Martini the Troll is being exposed for being a complete liar and fool.Not good to be a Musk Fluffer right now.It IS good to be a short seller of Tesla that got burned. They will get not only compensatory damages but up to 3-4 times that in punitive damages. Tesla is looking at potential damages in the hundreds of millions I bet.

  27. If you’re a lifelong workaholic with kids multiple lawsuits a company revolutionizing the odds of jailbreaking from our gravity well and making Mars and beyond affordable another company accelerating a whole spectrum of mainstream EVs and energy storage and a few more orgs working tunneling Earth/Mars and future proofing AI and AI-human interfaces and you do it all in part fueled from being a smart kid with big dreams in an adult body … It kinda gets to be a bit much and anyone who isn’t under that much pressure to deliver on every one of those commitments probably isn’t actually putting themselves in his shoes. From someone who’s actually known him in person for a while instead of the usual anonymous internet psychiatry:> Just a hyperactive hypersensitive hyperstressed human being. Anyone who pretends they wouldn’t show the stress of dealing with everything he’s dealing with or make mistakes is either stupid or a hypocrite. The real issue people seem to have is for some reason acid disgust at anyone who dares admire Musk even if they only admire the better parts of him and what he does.Hey I know. Let’s go back to no Teslas no SpaceX no future BFRs or anything else because Twitter is such a big deal and he dares burn people out at work. Who in their right mind looks for work at a Musk company expecting anything else?

  28. ? Are lawyers not parasites? Is there no history of lawyers bleeding companies to death like a tick infestation?Has Elon not publicly mentioned that he uses recreational drugs? Have you not seen wealthy Americans be above the law?

  29. There’s no reasoning with you. If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet, he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is. It does not matter if his tweet hurt shorts, because his explicit job is to do that, to justify a higher price for the ocmapny’s stock than the shorts think is prudent. It is what he has a fiduciary duty to do.

  30. Id!ot, you won’t quote anything like that any more than you will ever quote Musk “retracting” any tweet. Which quote we haven’t seen yet.

  31. What ‘or’? It will be Tesla on the hook for the short sellers suffering losses, btw. He was acting as CEO when he made those tweets and that is where the money/assets really is. It’s either going to be one or the other or both. But less likely none.

  32. Nobody said he’s crazy. We are just saying he is probably a securities fraud huckster and SO SAYS ALSO THE SEC. Only Musk Fluffers going crazy when people pee into their Kool-Aid punch bowl react to that like you just did.

  33. He’s a certified Musk Fluffer. There is no reasoning with these people. Would you try to ‘reason’ with a crackhead undergoing withdrawal? Musk Fluffers are the same way when their Kool-Aid gets pïssed in.

  34. No it doesn’t. I strengthens the context. Just because Kool-Aid drinking Musk Fluffers are aghast every time someone points out Musk not being the Messiah said Kool-Aid makes them think he is, doesn’t change that fact.

  35. Maybe Elon will get cashed out from Tesla and be able to sink that cash in to SpaceX. (am not so secretly rooting for this outcome)

  36. There’s no reasoning with you. If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is. It does not matter if his tweet hurt shorts because his explicit job is to do that to justify a higher price for the ocmapny’s stock than the shorts think is prudent. It is what he has a fiduciary duty to do.

  37. Id!ot you won’t quote anything like that any more than you will ever quote Musk retracting”” any tweet. Which quote we haven’t seen yet.”””

  38. What ‘or’? It will be Tesla on the hook for the short sellers suffering losses btw. He was acting as CEO when he made those tweets and that is where the money/assets really is.It’s either going to be one or the other or both. But less likely none.

  39. Nobody said he’s crazy. We are just saying he is probably a securities fraud huckster and SO SAYS ALSO THE SEC.Only Musk Fluffers going crazy when people pee into their Kool-Aid punch bowl react to that like you just did.

  40. He’s a certified Musk Fluffer. There is no reasoning with these people.Would you try to ‘reason’ with a crackhead undergoing withdrawal? Musk Fluffers are the same way when their Kool-Aid gets pïssed in.

  41. No it doesn’t. I strengthens the context.Just because Kool-Aid drinking Musk Fluffers are aghast every time someone points out Musk not being the Messiah said Kool-Aid makes them think he is doesn’t change that fact.

  42. Maybe Elon will get cashed out from Tesla and be able to sink that cash in to SpaceX.(am not so secretly rooting for this outcome)

  43. Jesus Christ warren. You have a real problem with this Musk obsession. I think you need to take a look at your reasons for disliking the guy so much. Are you Sure your not a short seller or something?

  44. Poor Martha was indeed the victim of a perjury trap, and the only thing she was convicted of was the process crime of providing false information to federal investigators. Mr. Musk is facing similar problems as Martha with his sworn testimony to the SEC. He does not seem to be the type of person who does well in these situations. So I can see things going bad for him. He also is facing some civil litigation over this situation. And this will likely cost a significant amount of money to resolve.

  45. Jesus Christ warren. You have a real problem with this Musk obsession. I think you need to take a look at your reasons for disliking the guy so much. Are you Sure your not a short seller or something?

  46. Poor Martha was indeed the victim of a perjury trap and the only thing she was convicted of was the process crime of providing false information to federal investigators.Mr. Musk is facing similar problems as Martha with his sworn testimony to the SEC. He does not seem to be the type of person who does well in these situations. So I can see things going bad for him. He also is facing some civil litigation over this situation. And this will likely cost a significant amount of money to resolve.

  47. Stopping/Punishing Insider trading, would financially hurt too many insiders. Not going to happen. The only time an insider gets called out is if they’re doing something unrelated other insiders don’t like, but this is used sparingly since a precedent of accountability is bad for the business of bilking the sheep.

  48. Stopping/Punishing Insider trading would financially hurt too many insiders. Not going to happen. The only time an insider gets called out is if they’re doing something unrelated other insiders don’t like but this is used sparingly since a precedent of accountability is bad for the business of bilking the sheep.

  49. Wow you really don’t like that dude! I don’t like him either, but fantasies about him getting abused in prison, really????

  50. Won’t any legal action be against Musk himself and not Tesla? Musk has the deep pockets that lawyers seem to like to go after so why drag Tesla (which is in deep debt) into the fray when the company itself didn’t actually do anything thing wrong. Note, Tesla will take a big hit when Musk has a huge judgment against him.

  51. Some lawyers someplace are probably putting together a case against Musk as we speak. Elon is going to end up losing a lot (possibly everything) for that one stupid tweet. Twitter is dangerous place for people with a lot of power to go…

  52. No, because Musk has only conducted calendar scheduled, programmed buys of Tesla stock. Only buying more or less of the stock than the previously announced program would be suspicious. Claiming otherwise is tantamount to saying officers in a company cannot own stock in the company. Generally, it is his job to shellack the shorts, by running the company to justify as high a stock price as he can.

  53. He most certainly is not crazy. But he is most certainly under an awful lot of STRESS. Tweeting while sleepy and stressed is something that no CEO of a publicly traded should do.

  54. Spacex is structurally well-fenced outside Tesla.” SpaceX owns Tesla bonds which is creepy in an incestuous way.

  55. Personally, I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX” Agreed. I want to cheer for him he just made such a large unforced error here. Take the money and reinvest it in SpaceX. Dude needs to take a vacation and that is coming from somebody who is notorious for taking working vacations.

  56. If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet, he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is.” Personally buying your own stock at $300 a share while working out a deal to sell your company at $420 is insider trading. As for the “funding secured” mr Musk needs to hire some good lawyers. He will be deposed and taken to court by the short sellers who were shellacked by the stock jumping on his tweet.

  57. Wow you really don’t like that dude! I don’t like him either but fantasies about him getting abused in prison really????

  58. Won’t any legal action be against Musk himself and not Tesla? Musk has the deep pockets that lawyers seem to like to go after so why drag Tesla (which is in deep debt) into the fray when the company itself didn’t actually do anything thing wrong. Note Tesla will take a big hit when Musk has a huge judgment against him.

  59. Some lawyers someplace are probably putting together a case against Musk as we speak. Elon is going to end up losing a lot (possibly everything) for that one stupid tweet. Twitter is dangerous place for people with a lot of power to go…

  60. No because Musk has only conducted calendar scheduled programmed buys of Tesla stock. Only buying more or less of the stock than the previously announced program would be suspicious. Claiming otherwise is tantamount to saying officers in a company cannot own stock in the company.Generally it is his job to shellack the shorts by running the company to justify as high a stock price as he can.

  61. He most certainly is not crazy. But he is most certainly under an awful lot of STRESS. Tweeting while sleepy and stressed is something that no CEO of a publicly traded should do.

  62. Spacex is structurally well-fenced outside Tesla.””SpaceX owns Tesla bonds which is creepy in an incestuous way.”””

  63. Personally” I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX””Agreed. I want to cheer for him he just made such a large unforced error here. Take the money and reinvest it in SpaceX.Dude needs to take a vacation and that is coming from somebody who is notorious for taking working vacations.”””

  64. If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet” he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is.””Personally buying your own stock at $300 a share while working out a deal to sell your company at $420 is insider trading.As for the “”””funding secured”””” mr Musk needs to hire some good lawyers. He will be deposed and taken to court by the short sellers who were shellacked by the stock jumping on his tweet.”””

  65. No moron, you don’t. To do that you’d have to actually post a relevant fact which backed you up. You should start by quoting that 2nd tweet you claim Musk made where you say he retracted anything.

  66. Nope. That was a dig at his cult followers here on NBF. And Valcan below, you read that as me being against Musk himself. Go back and read what I’ve wrote on him. I am always ripping into the Musk fluffers. In fact, I say something nice about Musk’s accomplishments in the Boring Co article Brian just posted.

  67. Tommy the Fake Luca in another post declares that there is no prove of anyone saying that Trump doesn’t have the funding. Yet here he is commenting on a sub thread about a documented someone saying just that — and Tommy doesn’t deny it.

  68. It will be against both. Most likely any criminal charges will be against Musk while civil suits against the company.

  69. No moron you don’t. To do that you’d have to actually post a relevant fact which backed you up.You should start by quoting that 2nd tweet you claim Musk made where you say he retracted anything.

  70. Nope. That was a dig at his cult followers here on NBF. And Valcan below you read that as me being against Musk himself.Go back and read what I’ve wrote on him. I am always ripping into the Musk fluffers. In fact I say something nice about Musk’s accomplishments in the Boring Co article Brian just posted.

  71. Tommy the Fake Luca in another post declares that there is no prove of anyone saying that Trump doesn’t have the funding. Yet here he is commenting on a sub thread about a documented someone saying just that — and Tommy doesn’t deny it.

  72. It will be against both. Most likely any criminal charges will be against Musk while civil suits against the company.

  73. What you are always doing is trolling. Frequently you are lying. Your quotation of the mythical 2nd tweet by Musk where he retracted the first one, which you claimed existed”, has still not appeared.

  74. Well, incest is not the right word in that Musk owns both companies, more like doing the nasty with yourself. But Spacex owns SolarCity bonds, no? Wasn’t aware they made public any ownership of Tesla convertibles. There is a great Venn diagram visual from WSJ (not sure if NBF allows embedded links anymore) from April 27,2016 that explains all this. In any case, Spacex as a private holding company has a corporate structure that protects it. However, given Musk has pledged shares and other assets as security etc between all three companies, and he is the owner overall, he IS both companies together. The big Q it seems everyone has now is can Tesla and Spacex continue without Musk? I doubt it, would become very boring companies….

  75. What you are always doing is trolling. Frequently you are lying.Your quotation of the mythical 2nd tweet by Musk where he retracted the first one which you claimed existed”” has still not appeared.”””

  76. Well incest is not the right word in that Musk owns both companies more like doing the nasty with yourself. But Spacex owns SolarCity bonds no? Wasn’t aware they made public any ownership of Tesla convertibles. There is a great Venn diagram visual from WSJ (not sure if NBF allows embedded links anymore) from April 272016 that explains all this. In any case Spacex as a private holding company has a corporate structure that protects it. However given Musk has pledged shares and other assets as security etc between all three companies and he is the owner overall he IS both companies together. The big Q it seems everyone has now is can Tesla and Spacex continue without Musk? I doubt it would become very boring companies….

  77. What you are always doing is trolling. Frequently you are lying.

    Your quotation of the mythical 2nd tweet by Musk where he retracted the first one, which you claimed existed”, has still not appeared.

  78. Well, incest is not the right word in that Musk owns both companies, more like doing the nasty with yourself. But Spacex owns SolarCity bonds, no? Wasn’t aware they made public any ownership of Tesla convertibles. There is a great Venn diagram visual from WSJ (not sure if NBF allows embedded links anymore) from April 27,2016 that explains all this. In any case, Spacex as a private holding company has a corporate structure that protects it. However, given Musk has pledged shares and other assets as security etc between all three companies, and he is the owner overall, he IS both companies together.
    The big Q it seems everyone has now is can Tesla and Spacex continue without Musk? I doubt it, would become very boring companies….

  79. No moron, you don’t. To do that you’d have to actually post a relevant fact which backed you up.

    You should start by quoting that 2nd tweet you claim Musk made where you say he retracted anything.

  80. Nope. That was a dig at his cult followers here on NBF. And Valcan below, you read that as me being against Musk himself.

    Go back and read what I’ve wrote on him. I am always ripping into the Musk fluffers. In fact, I say something nice about Musk’s accomplishments in the Boring Co article Brian just posted.

  81. Tommy the Fake Luca in another post declares that there is no prove of anyone saying that Trump doesn’t have the funding. Yet here he is commenting on a sub thread about a documented someone saying just that — and Tommy doesn’t deny it.

  82. Won’t any legal action be against Musk himself and not Tesla? Musk has the deep pockets that lawyers seem to like to go after so why drag Tesla (which is in deep debt) into the fray when the company itself didn’t actually do anything thing wrong. Note, Tesla will take a big hit when Musk has a huge judgment against him.

  83. Some lawyers someplace are probably putting together a case against Musk as we speak. Elon is going to end up losing a lot (possibly everything) for that one stupid tweet. Twitter is dangerous place for people with a lot of power to go…

  84. No, because Musk has only conducted calendar scheduled, programmed buys of Tesla stock. Only buying more or less of the stock than the previously announced program would be suspicious. Claiming otherwise is tantamount to saying officers in a company cannot own stock in the company.

    Generally, it is his job to shellack the shorts, by running the company to justify as high a stock price as he can.

  85. He most certainly is not crazy. But he is most certainly under an awful lot of STRESS. Tweeting while sleepy and stressed is something that no CEO of a publicly traded should do.

  86. “Personally, I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX”

    Agreed. I want to cheer for him he just made such a large unforced error here. Take the money and reinvest it in SpaceX.

    Dude needs to take a vacation and that is coming from somebody who is notorious for taking working vacations.

  87. “If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet, he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is.”

    Personally buying your own stock at $300 a share while working out a deal to sell your company at $420 is insider trading.

    As for the “funding secured” mr Musk needs to hire some good lawyers. He will be deposed and taken to court by the short sellers who were shellacked by the stock jumping on his tweet.

  88. Stopping/Punishing Insider trading, would financially hurt too many insiders. Not going to happen. The only time an insider gets called out is if they’re doing something unrelated other insiders don’t like, but this is used sparingly since a precedent of accountability is bad for the business of bilking the sheep.

  89. Jesus Christ warren. You have a real problem with this Musk obsession. I think you need to take a look at your reasons for disliking the guy so much. Are you Sure your not a short seller or something?

  90. Poor Martha was indeed the victim of a perjury trap, and the only thing she was convicted of was the process crime of providing false information to federal investigators.

    Mr. Musk is facing similar problems as Martha with his sworn testimony to the SEC. He does not seem to be the type of person who does well in these situations. So I can see things going bad for him. He also is facing some civil litigation over this situation. And this will likely cost a significant amount of money to resolve.

  91. There’s no reasoning with you. If he had funding agreed to at the time of the tweet, he committed no crime at all and that’s all there is. It does not matter if his tweet hurt shorts, because his explicit job is to do that, to justify a higher price for the ocmapny’s stock than the shorts think is prudent. It is what he has a fiduciary duty to do.

  92. What ‘or’?

    It will be Tesla on the hook for the short sellers suffering losses, btw. He was acting as CEO when he made those tweets and that is where the money/assets really is.

    It’s either going to be one or the other or both. But less likely none.

  93. Nobody said he’s crazy. We are just saying he is probably a securities fraud huckster and SO SAYS ALSO THE SEC.

    Only Musk Fluffers going crazy when people pee into their Kool-Aid punch bowl react to that like you just did.

  94. He’s a certified Musk Fluffer. There is no reasoning with these people.

    Would you try to ‘reason’ with a crackhead undergoing withdrawal? Musk Fluffers are the same way when their Kool-Aid gets pïssed in.

  95. No it doesn’t. I strengthens the context.

    Just because Kool-Aid drinking Musk Fluffers are aghast every time someone points out Musk not being the Messiah said Kool-Aid makes them think he is, doesn’t change that fact.

  96. Personally, I cheer him up for what he’s doing with SpaceX. His other enterprises, colorful personality and silicon valley jerk-boss persona are of little interest to me. Same if he’s multi-talented and/or stressed/crazy or not.

    But in this particular case, he may have committed a punishable felony. That’s a big problem for any big SpaceX plans, given he’s the boss of that company. And that’s all I really care about in this whole affair.

    I he gets out of this unscathed, I will be relieved and happy for him and for the ongoing SpaceX prospects. If not, well, that’s a pity. Let’s move our interest to the next guy capable of delivering reusable launchers then.

  97. “Martha Stewart served five months in federal prison on insider trading charges.”

    Not quite. She served time for “lying to federal officials”. Yes, it was in the context of an insider trading investigation, but, IIRC, she wasn’t actually convicted of “insider trading”.

  98. “I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available”

    What you THINK and what the law is are two entirely different things.

    And what you think is not what every securities lawyer is saying. Nor the SEC.

  99. He’ll be too busy learning other things while in prison:

    Musk Meets His New Cell Mate:

    Musk: “Hi! Name’s Elon. Who are you?”
    Cell Mate: “Bend over!”
    Musk: “Nice to meet you, Mr. Over. Been here long?”
    Mr. Over starts unbuckling his pants.
    Musk: “Now, now…I am sure we an work out a deal. How about a Model 3 Tesla when you get out of here? You know, the one that has problems with the bumper falling off after being in the rain?”
    Mr. Over advances towards Musk.
    “How about a ride into space! No…wait! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  100. Hahahahahah!

    I am looking more correct with each passing day…while Tommy Perkins/Luca Mazzi/Matteo Martini the Troll is being exposed for being a complete liar and fool.

    Not good to be a Musk Fluffer right now.

    It IS good to be a short seller of Tesla that got burned. They will get not only compensatory damages but up to 3-4 times that in punitive damages. Tesla is looking at potential damages in the hundreds of millions, I bet.

  101. If you’re a lifelong workaholic with kids, multiple lawsuits, a company revolutionizing the odds of jailbreaking from our gravity well and making Mars and beyond affordable, another company accelerating a whole spectrum of mainstream EVs and energy storage, and a few more orgs working tunneling Earth/Mars and future proofing AI and AI-human interfaces, and you do it all in part fueled from being a smart kid with big dreams in an adult body … It kinda gets to be a bit much and anyone who isn’t under that much pressure to deliver on every one of those commitments, probably isn’t actually putting themselves in his shoes.

    From someone who’s actually known him in person for a while, instead of the usual anonymous internet psychiatry:
    << The image being drawn is of a man on the edge of a digital nervous breakdown, and the theory is that the once unstoppable Mr. Musk is now untethered and unhinged. So let me answer that question: Is he crazy? No, he’s not. Not, at least, in my various encounters with him over nearly two decades — including recently — in which he has been alternately funny, rude, compelling, obnoxious, accessible, easy to deal with, hard to deal with, always on, outspoken to a fault even when he might be at fault, angry, charming, intense and also strikingly confident. Which is a long way of saying deeply human, with all the positive and negative characteristics that suggests. And that is why, to me, Elon Musk has become the id of tech. But his desires and needs are never unconscious or hidden; they are all out there in the brightest Technicolor for all to see. In the oddest of ways, he is transparent, so utterly direct that it is unsettling and even painful at times to those around him. This week I have talked to a lot of people who know Mr. Musk, including those who adore him and those who have had it with his brusque intensity. And what I found among his current and former colleagues is that they really have the exact same story about an impulsive and driven boss who runs a very hot and messy kitchen and does not spend a lot of time apologizing for it. Some grew weary of this and left, while others thrive under the withering lights. Still others left and then came back, drawn in by the glow. >>

    Just a hyperactive hypersensitive hyperstressed human being. Anyone who pretends they wouldn’t show the stress of dealing with everything he’s dealing with or make mistakes is either stupid or a hypocrite. The real issue people seem to have is, for some reason, acid disgust at anyone who dares admire Musk, even if they only admire the better parts of him and what he does.

    Hey, I know. Let’s go back to no Teslas, no SpaceX, no future BFRs, or anything else, because Twitter is such a big deal and he dares burn people out at work. Who in their right mind looks for work at a Musk company expecting anything else?

  102. ?

    Are lawyers not parasites? Is there no history of lawyers bleeding companies to death like a tick infestation?

    Has Elon not publicly mentioned that he uses recreational drugs?

    Have you not seen wealthy Americans be above the law?

  103. I agree this is probably a case of inflamed ego. One things is being repeatedly compared with a fictional character and another one is believing it.

    Hard to avoid though, if you are actually doing science fictional-like things, but keeping a cool head even when doing unbelievable stuff is a must for any such people.

    If anything, he should learn a lesson about going to Twitter in person (ha ha, yeah right).

  104. I think he would actually need to show that he had a reasonable belief that funding was available, rather than have a legally enforceable contract. Either way, this sort of thing is exactly what the founding fathers of the republic did not have in mind.

    Martha Stewart went to prison because of statements she made to federal officials when they were investigating her, although she was not under oath. This demonstrates once again why you should never speak to law enforcement of any kind. Any sort of statement of fact you make can be used to drag you into court, whether you lied or not.

  105. Spacex is structurally well-fenced outside Tesla. However, Musk is still the major shareholder. I suspect Spacex probably has material adverse change clauses regarding owners/execs. Whether other private shareholders want to make a fuss over this, who knows. But he now has a serious brand problem, which is far worse than legal or ownership issues.

  106. Elon is above the law. No worries. Certainly no jail time. The parasites might drink until their bellies bloat, but he’ll survive and still be extremely rich, and less showy. Tony Stark movies got to his head. 420, Ambien, and wine got to his head.

  107. Ugh. I don’t want to agree with this assessment but yes he is either on the hook for the shorts or he is going to jail. I hope SpaceX is well insulated from Mr Musk and Tesla.

    Mr Musk needs to hire the best lawyers he can find. Its ok to pay them $20 million… it is cheap compared to the $2 billion shorts.

  108. That could throw sand in the engine of SpaceX’s plans, but I guess Gwynne Shotwell can keep the ship going if Elon goes behind bars for a while.

    Sorry Elon fans, but it can happen. He really should have avoided to be directly in front of Twitter and he should taken care of his running mouth.

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