Elon Musk appeared on Friday, January 20 in federal court in San Francisco during a trial in which he is accused of defrauding investors for having tweeted, more than four years ago, that he intended to exit Tesla from the Sotck exchange.
Dark suit, white shirt and tie, he defended his way of communicating on Twitter and his exploits at the top of the automotive group for half an hour. His testimony is expected to continue on Monday.
Elon Musk had created astonishment on August 7, 2018 by saying he wanted to withdraw his group from the stock exchange at a price of $420 per share, given that the funding was ” Safe “.
Tesla shares jumped to $386.48 shortly thereafter. By Aug. 16, it had dropped to $335.45, according to figures provided to the jury by Judge Edward Chen Tuesday, far from the $420 per share cited by Musk.
“Elon Musk lied and his lies are costing people millions of dollars”launched Wednesday Nicholas Porritt, attorney for the plaintiffs joined in a class action.
“They want Tesla dead”
These downward speculations “it should be illegal”said for his part Mr. Musk, questioned by Mr. Porritt on his opinion regarding this type of investor.
“These are bad people who steal money from small investors. They want Tesla dead and they will do anything to kill businesses, it’s evil.”continued for the jury.
His lawyer Alexander Spiro assured Wednesday that Elon Musk had every intention of taking Tesla out of the stock market and had no doubts about its financing capabilities, thanks to the assurances of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The tweet has been written “hastily”the choice of words was “careless”but “It’s Not a Fraud”he hammered.
On Friday, the plaintiffs’ attorney sought to show that the Tesla CEO and his entourage were well aware of the consequences of his wanton fickleness on Twitter. He referred to one of his tweets from July 2018, when he faced “pedestrian boy” a British caver who had criticized him.
“Have you taken a break from Twitter? »asked Mr. Porritt, referring to the advice to that effect from a senior Tesla official and an investor. ” I do not think so “replied the billionaire.
“False and Misleading”
The trial is expected to last three weeks. In an earlier decision related to this case, a judge ruled that the infamous 2018 tweet could be considered “false and misleading”.
Test your general knowledge with “World” writing
Discover
The producer had quickly abandoned the idea of leaving the rating. But the US stock market watchman, the SEC, deeming that Mr. Musk had not provided evidence of his financing, had forced him to relinquish the presidency of the Tesla board of directors and to pay a 20 million dollar fine.
He subsequently requested that his tweets directly related to the Tesla business be pre-approved by a competent attorney.
“Elon Musk sees this lawsuit as a way to get the SEC to reconsider this decision”commented Josh White, a former economist at the federal agency. “He thinks he has done nothing wrong and has the right to say what he wants on Twitter. »