The SEC has issued yet another subpoena to Tesla in relation to CEO Elon Musk’s tweets. Musk is supposed to have social media posts that have to do with his electric car company reviewed by a “Twitter sitter,” but has drawn fresh regulatory scrutiny over a Twitter poll asking the public if he should sell 10 percent of his stock holdings in the company, a sale that later did occur.
CNBC reports that according to a recent financial filing from Tesla, the SEC has issued another subpoena to the electric car company. The SEC is attempting to determine whether Elon Musk complied with a settlement agreement from 2019 in which he agreed to have social media posts pertinent to Tesla reviewed by a third party.
Elon Musk strikes a pose (Pool/Getty)
Tesla’s filing states that the SEC is looking for information on Tesla’s “governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement, as amended.” The subpoena comes shortly after Musk asked his millions of Twitter followers if he should sell 10 percent of his stake in the electric car maker. The majority of his followers voted yes. Although Musk eventually sold a considerable percentage of his shares, many of Musk’s stock sales following the Twitter poll were already planned in September 2021.
In 2018, the SEC charged Musk with fraud for tweeting that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share, which sent Tesla’s stock up and down for weeks.
Musk and Tesla eventually settle with an SEC and struck an agreement that called for a legal and regulatory compliance officer at Tesla to pre-approve Musk’s tweets containing information about Tesla that could affect its stock price. Musk was also forced to step down as chairman of the board at Tesla for three years and Musk and Tesla bother had to pay $20 million fines.
Musk has since regularly taken shots at the SEC, making his lack of respect for the commission quite well known. In 2020, Musk called the SEC the “shortseller enrichment commission,” and has also posted a number of tweets taking shots at the commission.
In December of 2021, musk attempted to ridicule whistleblowers by sharing a Tesla “Cyberwhistle” for purchase.
Shortly afterward, the SEC confirmed that it was investigating a complaint from former Tesla employee Stephen Henkes who claims that the company was aware of a serious fire risk associated with its solar photovoltaic installations but refused to notify shareholders and the public about the issue.
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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