Musk can't tweet about Tesla without lawyer approval – and he's still fighting to end that
(2022/06/16)
- Reference: 1655332394
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/15/musk_tweet_court/
- Source link:
Elon Musk still hopes to quash a 2018 settlement agreement with the SEC requiring Tesla-related tweets to be approved by a lawyer before he can post them: on Wednesday, he took his case to the US Court of Appeals after a lower court denied this request.
The Tesla CEO landed himself in hot water with the watchdog when he [1]tweeted he was thinking of taking the company private at $420 a share, and claimed to have already secured the necessary funding ( [2]sound familiar? ) In reality, however, Musk did not have the funding or approval to do so. Investors, however, took him seriously and they started buying more shares, bumping up the stock price over 10 per cent.
The SEC accused Musk of fraud, saying his tweets were false and misled the public and caused disruption in the market. Musk was sued by the US regulator; he later [3]settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay $40 million in penalties, step down as chairman of the automaker's board, and accepted that any tweets discussing Tesla would have to be screened from now on.
[4]
But now he wants to terminate that last part of the agreement. Musk's legal team argued the SEC lacks the legal authority to control his free speech, and that it's unfair for the watchdog to permit "roving and unbounded investigations" into Musk's activities whilst he is restrained from tweeting freely.
[5]
[6]
This was put to a federal judge in New York, who in April denied his request. "Musk was not forced to enter into the consent decree; rather, 'for [his] own strategic purposes, [Musk], with the advice and assistance of counsel, entered into these agreements voluntarily, in order to secure the benefits thereof, including finality,'" district court judge Lewis Liman declared
[8]Twitter shareholders to vote on Elon Musk's acquisition
[9]Musk repeats threat to end $46.5bn Twitter deal – with lawyers, not just tweets
[10]SEC probes Musk for not properly disclosing Twitter stake
[11]Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter in $44b deal, promises stuff
"Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now—once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not," the judge added.
Now, Musk's lawyers are attempting to overturn that decision by taking the case to the Court of Appeals, filing their intention to do so today. It's unclear how the case will move forward.
We're reminded that Musk, who is [12]reportedly going to take questions from Twitter workers on Thursday, loves to [13]talk about free speech, or rather his definition of it, on and regarding the social network. He would like nothing more than to free himself of the commitment he made to the SEC on tweeting.
[14]
The Register has asked the SEC for comment. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/27/sec_musk_tweet/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/elon_musk_buys_twitter/
[3] https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/06/15/musk_appeal_denied.pdf
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/twitter_shareholder_vote_musk/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/06/twitter_musk_bots/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/the_sec_is_probing_elon/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/elon_musk_buys_twitter/
[12] https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/tech/elon-musk-twitter-employee-meeting/index.html
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/musk_twitter_feud_sale/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The Tesla CEO landed himself in hot water with the watchdog when he [1]tweeted he was thinking of taking the company private at $420 a share, and claimed to have already secured the necessary funding ( [2]sound familiar? ) In reality, however, Musk did not have the funding or approval to do so. Investors, however, took him seriously and they started buying more shares, bumping up the stock price over 10 per cent.
The SEC accused Musk of fraud, saying his tweets were false and misled the public and caused disruption in the market. Musk was sued by the US regulator; he later [3]settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay $40 million in penalties, step down as chairman of the automaker's board, and accepted that any tweets discussing Tesla would have to be screened from now on.
[4]
But now he wants to terminate that last part of the agreement. Musk's legal team argued the SEC lacks the legal authority to control his free speech, and that it's unfair for the watchdog to permit "roving and unbounded investigations" into Musk's activities whilst he is restrained from tweeting freely.
[5]
[6]
This was put to a federal judge in New York, who in April denied his request. "Musk was not forced to enter into the consent decree; rather, 'for [his] own strategic purposes, [Musk], with the advice and assistance of counsel, entered into these agreements voluntarily, in order to secure the benefits thereof, including finality,'" district court judge Lewis Liman declared
[7]PDF
.[8]Twitter shareholders to vote on Elon Musk's acquisition
[9]Musk repeats threat to end $46.5bn Twitter deal – with lawyers, not just tweets
[10]SEC probes Musk for not properly disclosing Twitter stake
[11]Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter in $44b deal, promises stuff
"Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now—once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not," the judge added.
Now, Musk's lawyers are attempting to overturn that decision by taking the case to the Court of Appeals, filing their intention to do so today. It's unclear how the case will move forward.
We're reminded that Musk, who is [12]reportedly going to take questions from Twitter workers on Thursday, loves to [13]talk about free speech, or rather his definition of it, on and regarding the social network. He would like nothing more than to free himself of the commitment he made to the SEC on tweeting.
[14]
The Register has asked the SEC for comment. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/27/sec_musk_tweet/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/elon_musk_buys_twitter/
[3] https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/06/15/musk_appeal_denied.pdf
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/twitter_shareholder_vote_musk/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/06/twitter_musk_bots/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/the_sec_is_probing_elon/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/elon_musk_buys_twitter/
[12] https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/14/tech/elon-musk-twitter-employee-meeting/index.html
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/25/musk_twitter_feud_sale/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yqqq5bz5Qg-jHGC7qZ3-3QAAAM0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
To whichever of Musk's lawyers is reading this
Danny 2
I dislike your overlord,but he did get justifiably good publicity for supplying Starlink systems to Ukraine.
Problem: Grain can't be shipped out of Ukraine. Biden plans to build silos on the NATO side of the border and transfer grain from Ukrainian trains to Polish trains. The trains can't go direct;y because different gauge railtracks.
Solution: build a Ukrainian gauge railtrack in Poland!
Can't cost much (in Musk terms), could help stem oncoming global starvation, and that's the sort of good publicity you cannot buy.
Vain man seeks constant attention
Anonymous Coward
In other news:
Orange vain man seeks constant attention…
Swap the requirement for one that appoints an arbitration panel to decide the compensation he has to pay to anyone who loses money as a result of his Twitter powered manipulation of share prices. No lawyers involved because the agreement would be to pay what the panel decided so he wouldn't be able to dispute it. No legal fees, therefore, for the claimants; just put the claims to the panel Then the SEC shouldn't be concerned that his tweets affect the share price because the only person losing money would be himself.
It would be a reminder to him of the difference between free as in speech and free as in beer.