Oops. When you're a CEO of a public company, youi can't just spout whatever your want.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news...tements?srnd=premium

Tesla Is Facing U.S. Criminal Probe Over Elon Musk Statements

By Tom Schoenberg and Matt Robinson September 18, 2018, 11:42 AM EDT Updated on September 18, 2018, 1:15 PM EDT

Company got document request and is cooperating: statement

Inquiry started after CEO claimed he had funding to go private

Tesla Inc. is under investigation by the Justice Department over public statements made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, according to two people familiar with the matter. The criminal probe is running alongside a previously reported civil inquiry by securities regulators.

Federal prosecutors opened a fraud investigation after Musk tweeted last month that he was contemplating taking Tesla private and had “funding secured” for the deal, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss a confidential criminal probe. The tweet initially sent the company’s shares higher.

Tesla confirmed it has been contacted by the Justice Department.

“Last month, following Elon’s announcement that he was considering taking the company private, Tesla received a voluntary request for documents from the DOJ and has been cooperative in responding to it,” the company said in a statement released Tuesday following Bloomberg’s report of the investigation. “We have not received a subpoena, a request for testimony, or any other formal process. We respect the DOJ’s desire to get information about this and believe that the matter should be quickly resolved as they review the information they have received.”

The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Northern District of California follows a subpoena issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking information from the electric-car maker about Musk’s plans to go private, which he has since abandoned.

The criminal inquiry is in its early stages, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Justice Department probes, like the civil inquiries undertaken by the SEC, can take months. They sometimes end with prosecutors deciding against bringing any charges.

Tesla shares reversed gains and dropped as much as 4.4 percent to $282. The stock dropped 2.5 percent to $287.60 as of 11:45 a.m. in New York and are down about 7.7 percent this year.

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Problem for Musk is that he'll be unable to raise more capital while under SEC, let alone DOJ criminal proceedings. He has bonds worth billions due at the end of this year and another set due in March next year. Convertible strike price is $350 so he won't hit that, so those bonds won't convert and he has to pay them all back, with no cash and no profit, and under criminal proceeding. Ouch!

Elon Musk has learned that it's more profitable to bilk the government than it is to float paper that fluctuates between worth more and worthless.

I see Tesla's fate the same as my electric car.

A year ago, I bought a smart fortwo electric (used). It was an experiment, because my new home had an EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment). I guess the former owner drove a hybrid.

Anyway, I paid cash for the smart car because I already have a "standard" gas burning vehicle. Smart is an acronym for "Swatch Mercedes ART" (art is the German word for "style"), so it's a Mercedes, right? What could go wrong?

Plenty, as it turns out. Through a mix of poor marketing, odd sales programs and poor consumer acceptance, Mercedes has all but abandoned the marque. Now, there is only one place within range of a full charge that can and will work on the car.

Which, in fact, has been in the shop for going on three WEEKS now. Okay, so I get a Mercedes loaner car, but I already said I have another vehicle (also a Mercedes) which is nicer than the loaner.

I'm now a captive of a single source of support. There isn't anything I can do about it. When the car is finally ready to be returned to me, I'm driving straight to a CarMax or similar where I'll accept a check for it.

Tesla, I think, will fall into this same miasma. The cars will become an oddity, a source of amusement and wonder at car shows. Kind of like a Tucker.

Musk will go on, because after all, selling cars wasn't his goal. Electricity delivery systems are. And he'll go on and get more government funding for his innovation.

Add to the fray that the Saudis just invested in E Car Lucid and not Tesla, which is odd considering Lucid has Zero cars in production...

Nonetheless..

Saudis Invest in Lucid ECars

SEC charges Tesla CEO Elon Musk with fraud

•Sources close to the company told CNBC the company was also expecting to be sued, though Tesla was not named as a defendant in the complaint.

•In August, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private, adding "funding secured."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud, according to court documents filed Thursday. Sources close to the company told CNBC the company was also expecting to be sued, though Tesla was not named as a defendant in the complaint.

Shares of the automaker fell roughly 10 percent in extended trading Thursday.

The SEC complaint alleges that Musk issued "false and misleading" statements and failed to properly notify regulators of material company events. The SEC plans to hold a press conference at 5 pm E.T.

In August, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private, adding "funding secured." The tweet spurred a scandal-ridden fall for Tesla and sent the stock see-sawing for weeks.

Musk later explained that he had been in discussions with the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and felt confident the funding would come through at his proposed price of $420 per share.



The SEC, in its complaint, alleged:

quote:

Musk knew that he (1) had not agreed upon any terms for a going-private transaction with the Fund or any other funding source; (2) had no further substantive communications with representatives of the Fund beyond their 30 to 45 minute meeting on July 31; (3) had never discussed a going-private transaction at a share price of $420 with any potential funding source; (4) had not contacted any additional potential strategic investors to assess their interest in participating in a going-private transaction; (5) had not contacted existing Tesla shareholders to assess their interest in remaining invested in Tesla as a private company; (6) had not formally retained any legal or financial advisors to assist with a going-private transaction; (7) had not determined whether retail investors could remain invested in Tesla as a private company; (8) had not determined whether there were restrictions on illiquid holdings by Tesla's institutional investors; and (9) had not determined what regulatory approvals would be required or whether they could be satisfied.

The complaint also alleges Musk tweeted the statement without the input of other Tesla executives.

"At 1:00 PM EDT, approximately 12 minutes after Musk published his tweet stating, 'Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured,' Tesla's own head of Investor Relations sent a text to Musk's chief of staff asking, 'Was this text legit?'," the complaint says.

Musk said in an interview with The New York Times that he calculated a take-private price of $420 by rounding $1 up from what would have been a 20 percent upside at the time.

"According to Musk, he calculated the $420 price per share based on a 20% premium over that day's closing share price because he thought 20% was a 'standard premium' in going-private transaction," the SEC alleged in its suit. "This calculation resulted in a price of $419, and Musk stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number's significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend 'would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price.'"

In the hours after the initial tweet, Musk doubled down on the proposal in subsequent tweets. The SEC cited those subsequent tweets in the complaint as additional misleading statements.

Musk also failed to properly notify regulators about his plans to take the company private, the complaint alleges.

Tesla's board of directors initially formed a special committee to evaluate the take-private proposal, and Musk said he had hired financial advisors to assist with the plans. Musk ultimately called off the privatization plans on Aug. 24.

Tesla said earlier this month the Department of Justice was also looking into the Aug. 7 tweet.

Tesla did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Lawsuit PDF here: Lawsuit

DOJ case still coming.... handcuffs.. secured!

Enron 2.0

He just lost his company...

Tesla shares are plummeting today. Amazing what one little tweet can do...

This just in, Elon Musk is the secret descendant of Preston Tucker. Apparently the tendency to found fraudulent auto manufacturers is a genetic condition.

Saw as part of a Fox Business piece that he chose the $420/share to impress his stoner girl friend.
I for one hope he winds up in handcuffs.

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:
Elon Musk has learned that it's more profitable to bilk the government than it is to float paper that fluctuates between worth more and worthless.

I see Tesla's fate the same as my electric car.

A year ago, I bought a smart fortwo electric (used). It was an experiment, because my new home had an EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment). I guess the former owner drove a hybrid.

Anyway, I paid cash for the smart car because I already have a "standard" gas burning vehicle. Smart is an acronym for "Swatch Mercedes ART" (art is the German word for "style"), so it's a Mercedes, right? What could go wrong?

Plenty, as it turns out. Through a mix of poor marketing, odd sales programs and poor consumer acceptance, Mercedes has all but abandoned the marque. Now, there is only one place within range of a full charge that can and will work on the car.

Which, in fact, has been in the shop for going on three WEEKS now. Okay, so I get a Mercedes loaner car, but I already said I have another vehicle (also a Mercedes) which is nicer than the loaner.

I'm now a captive of a single source of support. There isn't anything I can do about it. When the car is finally ready to be returned to me, I'm driving straight to a CarMax or similar where I'll accept a check for it.

Tesla, I think, will fall into this same miasma. The cars will become an oddity, a source of amusement and wonder at car shows. Kind of like a Tucker.

Musk will go on, because after all, selling cars wasn't his goal. Electricity delivery systems are. And he'll go on and get more government funding for his innovation.

I’ve thought for a while that Tesla is the DeLorean of the 21st Century.

Dang, it appears the SEC doesn't have much of a sense of humor over stuff like this, do they?

My son the college student loves Elon Musk and the idea of Tesla, but even he noted when we spoke yesterday that Elon appeared to be acting more erratically than normal, punctuated by his behavior with the rescuer(s) of the kids trapped in a cave from earlier this year. I personally think the cheese has slipped off his cracker.

Off the board but still CEO. $20 million fine.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/2...l-remain-as-ceo.html

Most expensive tweet....ever.

Next up: A boatload of shareholder lawsuits.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Next up: A boatload of shareholder lawsuits.

Anyone who had a "Short" position on Tesla during the period of time should have a solid case.

Maybe free up some of elons time to sell solar panels?

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Next up: A boatload of shareholder lawsuits.

Anyone who had a "Short" position on Tesla during the period of time should have a solid case.

Then there's the 14% drop on Friday, which was the direct result of Musk's actions.

I can envision a scenario where one of the major auto companies purchase the Tesla auto manufacturing unit. Tesla cars could be a good product with a retail and parts distribution system. Musk can then play with his solar panels and space rockets.