Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was not guilty of market fraud when he falsely claimed in a tweet in 2018 that he had secured capital to take Tesla off the stock market. He has been acquitted by a group of investors who lost billions because of it.
Musk’s statement had a major impact on the company’s stock price, which fluctuated greatly. It later emerged that Musk had not yet secured the funding when the tweet went viral.
The tweet is unfortunately worded
A group of investors who lost large sums of money due to the announcement filed a lawsuit against Musk for market manipulation. They believed that the tycoon had acted recklessly in making this claim and that he had deceived investors by disclosing false information. The group asked that Musk be made to pay them compensation for the damage he caused them.
Read More:Â Musk acquitted of claims over alleged market manipulation
Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, argued that the tweet was unfortunately worded but that he did not intend to deceive people.
It took a jury in San Francisco, USA, about two hours to reach a decision and it was unanimous that neither Musk nor Tesla’s board was guilty of market manipulation.
