Tesla chief Elon Musk and the electric car company’s board of directors have been sued by a shareholder who accused Musk of violating his 2018 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for his Twitter use.
According to a complaint sealed in Delaware Chancery Court late Thursday, Musk’s ‘erratic’ tweets, including a message from last May 1 that Tesla’s stock price was ‘too high,’ and the failure of Tesla’s board to oversee on his compliance with the SEC settlement. shareholders to billions of dollars in losses.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The SEC settlement stemmed from Musk’s August 2018 tweet that he was considering taking Tesla private and “secured funding” for a possible $ 72 billion transaction.
He and Tesla each agreed the following month to pay $ 20 million in civil fines to settle with the regulator, and Musk agreed to have Tesla attorneys investigate some of his tweets beforehand.
According to the shareholders’ case, Musk has continued to release tweets without the required pre-approval. It aims to have Musk and other Tesla drivers pay damages to the company for violating their fiduciary duties.