Elon Musk accuses SEC of forcing him to sign Tesla settlement
Tesla’s chief executive and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk has accused the US Government of forcing him to sign a settlement that forced him to step down as chairman in 2018.
Musk has asked a court to throw away the deal as he said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had a personal “vendetta” against him.
The deal was struck after the SEC had sued Tesla following a tweet from Musk who said that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Under the settlement, Musk was forced to step down as chairman and needed to obtain permission from the company before pushing out sensitive tweets, the Telegraph reported.
“The SEC’s unrelenting regulatory pressure, combined with the attendant collateral consequence of the SEC’s complaint against me, caused a scenario in which I was forced to sign the consent decree in 2018,” Musk said. “I never lied to shareholders. I would never lie to shareholders. I entered into the consent decree for the survival of Tesla, for the sake of its shareholders.”
According to Tesla, Musk’s behaviour should be praised, not condemned. “[Musk’s tweets on stock sales] is behaviour the SEC should encourage: a CEO’s transparency with the public and shareholders about a proposed stock sale,” the company said.