Elon Musk found not liable for securities fraud in trial over 2018 Tesla tweet Elon Musk was not liable for losses to Tesla’s stock based on a 2018 tweet, a jury ruled Friday.
The jury concluded that the lawsuit filed by investors against Musk failed to prove that his August 7, 2018 tweet claiming he was “taking Tesla private at $420” and that the funds were safe , were harmful to investors.
The tweet, more than four years after its initial posting, led to a Securities and Exchange Commission ruling that forced Musk to settle and have a lawyer review his tweets. According to CNBC, lawyers for the investors said they are “disappointed by the decision and are considering next steps”.
Elon Musk’s lawyers argued that the tweet in question was accurate and was not intended to be manipulative. Elon Musk’s attorney told the jury on Friday, “He didn’t think in that hasty moment ahead of time that it could be interpreted differently and what it meant. In that moment, he didn’t think, ‘ How can my words be interpreted?”
During the trial, as Kasturi testified, her thought process and motives were taken into account. He also admitted that he may have sold shares in SpaceX to finance an ongoing private deal for Tesla.
In one report, the jury found him not liable for statements he tweeted when he said he was considering taking Tesla private for 420 shares, and the jury returned a verdict saying that He’s not accountable for those statements, so it’s an absolute win. Elon Musk and I think a lot of people may be surprised by this.
He is responsible for any damages that these shareholders claim that uh he and they caused them any damages but the jury didn’t see it ruling in favor of Elon Musk and that tweet that was sent out in 2018 essentially ruled in his favor from not being liable for any damages to shareholders who believe they should have paid him the money for the damages, saying the shares should have popped up immediately. After that he suffered and then he came back, so Elon Musk won this afternoon.
In a video report, this afternoon a jury in San Francisco acquitted Elon Musk of wrongdoing in that class action trial over his tweets about taking Tesla private. Welcome to all of you today at 4 pm. I’m Alex Abdo Heather Holmes. The jury rejected allegations that the Tesla CEO violated securities laws and should pay billions of dollars in damages. KTVU’s Tom Baker joins us in the newsroom now with more on this.
Big win for Elon Musk today, big pill, billionaire CEO says as Tesla’s lawyer in courtroom today, investors say jurors should reprimand Elon Musk for his quotes, with truth Loose ties, the plaintiffs claim, lost billions of dollars because they believed they should have made statements on social media in 2018 that they would take Tesla private. for $420 a share, for which he said he had arranged the money.
During the trial, Musk’s attorney acknowledged that the 2018 tweets were technically incorrect. But he told jurors that just because it’s a bad tweet doesn’t make it fraud. Within the final hour, a nine-member jury found Elon Musk not liable for securities fraud. And only in the last 30 minutes Alan has to tweet this. His response to the verdict said, thank God the wisdom of the people has triumphed.
I applaud the jury’s unanimous finding of innocence in Tesla’s final payment of $40 million to federal securities in a private case back in 2018 and essentially settling the same case brought by the federal government. Its president had to resign. , we have a team at the courthouse and are working very hard to get some feedback. We’ll get back to you at 5 PM with this breaking story. All right, Tom. More on the breaking news and many thanks to a huge legal victory for Elon Musk. We want to welcome you back to the show. And Lipton Tulane Professor of Law, we’re talking with you.
And during this trial, what do you think about today’s decision? I’m not sure it’s really that surprising. I mean, it sounds so strange that their reasoning, but you can see it in the sense that it is in reference to Tesla. I mean, his main argument was that this stock reacts to emotion. It answers what Elon Musk has been dreaming of for a while, and in this case, the money actually being secured is less important to investors than he might have thought.
It may very well be true that Tesla stock reacts the way the stock does to the big plans, the grand dreams that must happen even if none come to fruition, and if the jury concludes that the stock will react the same way, Even though everyone knew that the money he secured was not as safe as it actually was. It was a handshake deal. Um well, the jury must have concluded and maybe right? So let’s try to understand here why you think these gamblers felt that Elon Musk didn’t intentionally defraude investors here.
How much do you think his decision is based on his testimony and what he said on the stand? They said. It’s really complicated because the judge has, um, already concluded that he acted negligently and that negligent fact is sufficient belief. I mean credibility. You need a lot of different things to line up. You need the statements to be false. You want them to be made either casually or intentionally, and you need them to be material in the sense that they would go to market if they were materially false.
Therefore it should be testified that he did not intend to mislead anyone. maybe it’s true. The jury could agree with him, but the jury was also instructed that they must consider that he had acted negligently and that negligence was sufficient for liability. So if the jury followed those instructions, and I’m assuming they did, their decision probably wasn’t really based on what they wanted to do or didn’t want to do, but on the idea that Tesla’s investors really I didn’t see.
Big difference between money received in handshake deals, at least not in those first few days. When the whole thing was announced. You must hope Elon Musk is feeling great. I mean, they requested to have this trial moved out of San Francisco, arguing, you know, that there was no way to get a fair trial on their Twitter acquisition.
His city I mean, what do you think of moving it forward for Elon Musk. I think Mask is feeling a lot happier, a lot more confident now, and I think I mean, you know he’s dodged a lot of legal bullets. I think the longer he takes, the more legal chances he’ll have to take.
[The jury concluded that the lawsuit filed by investors against Musk failed to prove that his Aug. 7, 2018, tweet claiming that he was “taking Tesla private at $420” and that “funding was secured” was damaging to the investors.]