![\"elon-musk-Tesla-investor-sues-Musk-claims-tweets-violate-SEC-settlement-rapidnews-dailyrapid\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/elon-musk-Tesla-investor-sues-Musk-claims-tweets-violate-SEC-settlement-rapidnews-dailyrapid.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nTesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been sued by a shareholder who accused him of violating his 2018 settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his Twitter use.<\/p>\n
According to a complaint unsealed late Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court, which also names the electric car company\u2019s board as defendants, Musk\u2019s \u201cerratic\u201d tweets and the failure of Tesla directors to ensure he complied with the SEC settlement have exposed shareholders to billions of dollars of losses.<\/p>\n
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The complaint highlighted several Musk posts on social media platform Twitter, including his assessment last May 1 that Tesla\u2019s stock price was \u201ctoo high,\u201d prompting a more than $13 billion tumble in Tesla\u2019s market value.<\/p>\n
Chase Gharrity, the plaintiff, said Musk\u2019s actions and the directors\u2019 inaction have caused \u201csubstantial financial harm,\u201d and that they should pay damages to Palo Alto, California-based Tesla for breaching their fiduciary duties.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was filed even though Tesla\u2019s share price has soared nearly fivefold since Musk\u2019s \u201ctoo high\u201d tweet, giving Tesla a valuation well above $600 billion, and the SEC has not publicly accused Musk of recent violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could pressure the SEC into taking some sort of recourse,\u201d said Charles Elson, a University of Delaware professor and corporate governance specialist.<\/p>\n
Tesla did not immediately respond on Friday to requests for comment. Gharrity\u2019s lawyers, Musk\u2019s lawyers in the SEC case, and the SEC did not immediately respond to similar requests.<\/p>\n
The SEC settlement followed Musk\u2019s August 2018 tweet that he had \u201cfunding secured\u201d to possibly take Tesla private in a $72 billion transaction. In reality, Musk was not close.<\/p>\n
Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in civil fines, and Tesla lawyers agreed to vet some of Musk\u2019s tweets in advance.<\/p>\n
The settlement was later amended to clarify when pre-approvals were required, prompted by an unvetted tweet by Musk about Tesla\u2019s vehicle production forecast.<\/p>\n
Last April, a San Francisco federal judge said Tesla and Musk must face a lawsuit claiming Musk\u2019s going-private tweet defrauded shareholders. That case remains pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been sued by a shareholder who accused him of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n