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.
Brian Wang is a prolific business-oriented writer of emerging and disruptive technologies. He is known for insightful articles that combine business and technical analysis that catches the attention of the general public and is also useful for those in the industries. He is the sole author and writer of
nextbigfuture.com, the top online science blog. He is also involved in angel investing and raising funds for breakthrough technology startup companies.
He gave the recent keynote presentation at Monte Jade event with a talk entitled the Future for You. He gave an annual update on molecular nanotechnology at Singularity University on nanotechnology, gave a TEDX talk on energy, and advises USC ASTE 527 (advanced space projects program). He has been interviewed for radio, professional organizations. podcasts and corporate events. He was recently interviewed by the radio program Steel on Steel on satellites and high altitude balloons that will track all movement in many parts of the USA.
He fundraises for various high impact technology companies and has worked in computer technology, insurance, healthcare and with corporate finance.
He has substantial familiarity with a broad range of breakthrough technologies like age reversal and antiaging, quantum computers, artificial intelligence, ocean tech, agtech, nuclear fission, advanced nuclear fission, space propulsion, satellites, imaging, molecular nanotechnology, biotechnology, medicine, blockchain, crypto and many other areas.
