Elon Musk Might Have Broken The Law When He Tweeted About Selling Tesla Shares For “$420”
Whoops.
This morning, failed cave rescuer Elon Musk tweeted this:
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
A keen observer might notice a couple of things from this tweet. First of all, that it represents a significant mark up on the value of Musk’s company, Tesla. And secondly, it’s ~coincidentally~ the exact number that has been popularised in pop culture as a shorthand for marijuana. Y’know, Pot. Kush. Ganja. The old Mary Jane.
Now most people would view Musk’s tweet as a joke, but investors who have a lot of money riding on Tesla’s value… did not view it as a joke.
After Musk’s tweet, shares in Tesla jumped by around 10 percent.
That’s good news for Musk, one would think. Increasing the value of your business by $US7 billion is a good day of work.
But it turns out that Musk might have broken the law by disclosing extremely sensitive trading information on Twitter.
“Typically you’d halt the stock to make an announcement like this,” securities lawyer Greg Sichenzi told Business Insider. “It certainly smells like market manipulation.”
“If any part of it isn’t true, he could certainly be facing legal liability.”
Musk might have realised this himself, because he quickly backed up his tweet with a bit of detail.
Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote. https://t.co/bIH4Td5fED
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
In a blog post on Tesla’s website, Musk stressed that “a final decision has not yet been made”.
The weird tweet is the latest in a series of controversies that billionaire Musk has endured.
Last month, news broke that he was a major Republican party donor.
Musk also made headlines for being a tool about the Thai cave rescue mission. Not only did he make a dumb submarine that no one wanted, but when a professional diver confirmed that the submarine was dumb, Musk called him a “pedo”.