What's That Musk-y Smell? A Securities Fraud Trial

Jury selection begins today in Federal District Court in San Francisco for a securities fraud case against right-wing narcissist and world's worst boss Elon "Chief Twit" Musk. In 2018, Musk claimed in a tweet that he had $72 billion in financing from the Saudi Public Investment Fund for a buyout of Tesla stock, which proved to be a lie. The Saudi fund is controlled by sinister thug Crown Prince Mohammed bin "Bone Saw" Salman. The WaPo picks up the story:

"Musk sent the now-infamous tweet on Aug. 7, 2018: 'Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.' He followed it up with a subsequent post reading, 'Investor support is confirmed. Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote' — the other tweet referenced in court documents.

Musk has defended himself over claims his tweets were false, saying last year that he did have funding lined up at the time — from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which Musk said had 'committed unequivocally' to taking Tesla private. At that time, Musk had already settled with the SEC over the matter, paid a $20 million fine and relinquished his board chairmanship of Tesla, which paid a $20 million fine of its own.

The court in the shareholder suit has instructed jurors to assume Musk’s declarations of 'Funding secured' and 'Investor support is confirmed' are untrue."  (our emphasis)

By falsely pumping up the value of Tesla stock for investors with his tweet, and then reneging on the purchase, investors lost millions of dollars:

"The suit, initially brought in 2018, is a class action from Tesla investors alleging they lost huge sums of money after Tesla’s stock price soared and fell following the 'Funding secured' tweet and the SEC’s subsequent investigation.

The surge in the share price cost Tesla short sellers hundreds of millions of dollars 'when they were forced thereafter to cover their positions by purchasing Tesla securities at artificially inflated prices,' read the initial 2018 complaint."  (our emphasis)

Musk had asked the Court to change the venue from San Francisco to Texas due to his bad reputation in the Bay Area for firing 7,500 Twitter staff there. The Court refused. Stay tuned.

(photo: Getty Images)