Elon Musk testifies he had no ‘bad motives’ in Tesla tweet

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on Tuesday that he intended to inform, not deceive, shareholders when he tweeted in 2018 that he had the funds to privatize the electric car maker, which shareholders claimed was a lie.

Musk defends himself against accusations that he defrauded investors by tweeting on August 7, 2018 that he is “funded” to privatize Tesla at $420 a share and that “investor support confirmed.”

On Tuesday, in response to questions from his lawyer, Alex Spiro, he testified that he intended to share information about his interest in privatizing Tesla with all investors after it had already been shared with a few.

Musk said he had already discussed his interest with Tesla’s board and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the State Investment Fund, and feared the information would be leaked to the media.

“I had no evil motives,” he said. “My goal here was to do the right thing for shareholders.”


Sign of the state investment fund
Musk said he had already discussed his interest with Tesla’s board of directors and the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund.
REUTERS

He revealed that he chose not to privatize Tesla due to a lack of support from some investors and a desire to avoid a lengthy process.

Musk returned to the booth on Tuesday about five hours later on Monday and showed up on Friday.

The trial is testing whether the world’s second richest man can be held accountable for his sometimes reckless use of Twitter.

Tesla shares surged after Musk’s 2018 tweet of $420 a share, which was about a 23% premium by the previous day’s close, but fell as it became clear a buyback was not going to happen. Investors say they have lost millions of dollars as a result.

A nine-member jury will decide whether Tesla’s CEO artificially inflated the price of the company’s shares by touting a buyout prospect, and if so, by how much.

Musk has revealed that this is his “opinion” that the funding was secured.

On Monday, Musk said he could finance the deal by selling his stake in SpaceX, the aerospace company where he is also CEO.

In addition, on Monday, Musk revealed that he met with representatives of the State Investment Fund on July 31, 2018 at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California.

He acknowledged that the price of the takeover was not discussed, but said Saudi officials had made it clear that they would do everything possible to make the buyout happen.

Musk said the fund manager, Yasser Al Rumayan, later backtracked on the commitment to take Tesla private.

Lawyers for Al-Rumayan did not respond to a request for comment.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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