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A comment on Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements. Parent comment

Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements by ConfusedDog on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @12:04PM (#18016389)
He you mean Elon Musk? He admitted the funding was not secured at the time and was never intended to buy back stock at $420? Why not post a link and let us see.
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Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements by gamblor956 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:56PM (#18018578)
He actually did admit that funding was not secured to buy the stock back for $420.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-taking-tesla-private

In the post, he also admits that the Saudi Arabian investment would only provide a small fraction of the necessary amount needed to go private.

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Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements by dragontamer on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:57PM (#18019063)
That's DAYS after Musk made the initial "Funding Secured" tweet.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1026872652290379776?lang...

Follow the original twitter feed yourself. Its not like its been deleted. Musk is very clear that "funding is secured", and in follow up tweets.

> Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

> Shareholders could either to sell at 420 or hold shares & go private

> My hope is all current investors remain with Tesla even if we’re private. Would create special purpose fund enabling anyone to stay with Tesla. Already do this with Fidelity’s SpaceX investment.

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Days later, Musk posts a blogpost that directly contradicts his original tweets. IE: He was lying originally. We now know that there's no buyer who was willing to spend $70 Billion to buyout Tesla and take it private.

The question then, is was this lie "negligence" (SEC fine), or was it intended to manipulate the price? (FBI jailtime).

The DoJ case implies the FBI is looking into the jailtime question. While the SEC is looking into the negligence question. Both cases will move forward as appropriate.

My bet is that SEC gets him on negligence, but I don't really know enough about history / other cases to know what kind of punishment Musk will get. I'm guessing a fine of some kind, but the SEC does have the power to remove Musk from his CEO position entirely.

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