On Friday, a jury in a San Francisco federal court reportedly ruled that Elon Musk and Tesla were not responsible in a class action securities fraud lawsuit resulting from tweets Musk posted in 2018.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk was sued by Tesla shareholders in August 2018 for a series of tweets claiming he had financing secured to take the company private for $420 per share.
BREAKING: Musk found not guilty. $tsla pic.twitter.com/anAL6hBQQf
— squawksquare (@squawksquare) February 3, 2023
The lawsuit was filed by a group of shareholders who claimed that Musk had made misleading statements on social media, which then allegedly caused the price of Tesla’s stock to be artificially inflated.
The lawsuit was filed in response to a tweet that Musk sent in 2018, in which he stated that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
The tweet caused Tesla’s stock price to soar, but the funding never materialized in the end.
The shareholders who brought the lawsuit claimed that the tweet was intended to artificially inflate Tesla’s stock price and that Musk had no intention of actually taking the company private and was thus an act of deception.
During the trial, Musk’s defense argued that the tweet was a joke and that it was not meant to be taken seriously.
The lawyers also went on to argue that the stock price had already risen prior to the tweet, and that it was not caused by any false or misleading statements by Musk.
The jury found that Musk was not liable for any damages and that he also had not made false or misleading statements.
The verdict was seen as a major victory for Musk, who would have faced significant financial damages if he had been found guilty of the allegations.
This story is developing…
[READ MORE: Bill Barr Blasts the New York Times for its Reporting on the Durham Probe]
