Judge: ‘No harassment’: Musk must continue to approve tweets

Judge: “No harassment”
Musk must still have approved tweets

4/28/2022 2:04 am

Elon Musk should have a lawyer review tweets about Tesla. That’s what he wants a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which the billionaire signed four years ago. The future owner of Twitter would like to nullify it. But the competent court frustrates his plans.

Elon Musk will take over Twitter, but he will still have to get lawyers to approve tweets related to his Tesla group going forward. A judge has dismissed the world’s richest person’s request to overturn an earlier deal with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk caused a stir in 2018 with a tweet claiming he had the funds to take Tesla private. This caused confusion in the stock markets and the SEC accused Musk of misleading shareholders. As part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk had to pay a $20 million fine, resign as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors and promise to have future tweets about the electric car maker approved by a lawyer. before publication. .

Last March, Musk asked the court to nullify that agreement. He accused the SEC of wanting to “harass him and silence him.” Federal Judge Lewis Liman has now rejected this. Musk’s argument that he only agreed to the deal at the time due to financial difficulties is “absolutely unconvincing.” Musk can’t ask to cancel a deal he “knowingly and voluntarily” agreed to just because, now that he believes his company is “nearly invincible,” he wishes he hadn’t back then.

suspected insider trading

The judge also denied a request by Musk to bar an SEC request in an investigation into a November tweet. At the time, Musk asked his followers if he should sell 10 percent of his Tesla shares. This led to a drop in the value of the shares. The SEC wants to know if the tweet was reviewed by an attorney at the time, as required, and has requested relevant documents.

The stock exchange supervisory authority also investigates suspected insider trading. Musk’s brother had sold $108 million worth of Tesla stock the day before the company’s founder tweeted.

Twitter will be owned by Musk in the future: The company announced a deal on Monday under which Musk would take over the online platform for around $44 billion. Shortly after, the brawler billionaire publicly attacked a top Twitter administrator. On the platform, Musk criticized chief attorney Vijaya Gadde for her decision to temporarily restrict the Twitter account of the New York Post tabloid, which published a controversial article about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, during the 2020 US presidential campaign. “Clearly suspending a major news organization’s Twitter account for publishing a true story was incredibly inappropriate,” Musk wrote of Gadde. Observers, but also Twitter employees, are wondering what changes Musk will make to the platform. In the past, he had repeatedly accused Twitter of restricting freedom of expression.