Tesla CEO Elon Musk is due to appear in a California court on Tuesday for manipulating the stock markets via a 2018 tweet. A court spokesman said Friday that federal judge Edward Chen rejected Musk’s request to move the trial from San Francisco to the state of Texas, where the Tesla CEO has since moved. Jury selection begins on Tuesday.
In early August 2018, Musk caused a stir with a message on Twitter that he was considering delisting the electric car company and that funding to do so was “secure”. The unconventional announcement caused turmoil on the stock markets; Tesla shares rose nearly eleven percent, after which the New York Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading in the newspaper.
A few weeks later, Musk backed out: staying public was the “better way for Tesla,” he announced. A lawsuit has been filed against Musk for “artificially manipulating” the price of Tesla stock to hurt investors betting on a falling share price.
Lawyers pinpoint prejudice against Musk in California
Musk’s lawyers had justified the call to move the trial to Texas, as public opinion in San Francisco turned against him over his purchase of Twitter and the subsequent spate of layoffs from the online service. Local media have published “biased and negative reports” about Musk in recent months, and local politicians, such as the mayor of San Francisco, have also spoken out against the entrepreneur.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Judge Chen refuted these arguments, saying Musk also had “many fans” in San Francisco. The composition of an impartial jury is quite possible. In an earlier decision, the federal judge said Musk’s abusive tweet could be considered “false and misleading.”
Musk has already had a lot of trouble from the American authorities because of the tweet. The Securities and Exchange Commission forced him to relinquish his position as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors in 2018, requiring Musk’s tweets directly related to Tesla to be reviewed by an attorney before they could be published. In addition, Musk and the electric car company each had to pay a fine of 20 million dollars (18.5 million euros). Last spring, Musk unsuccessfully tried to overturn the SEC’s decision.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
