Reuters reports Tesla’s Musk agrees to new vetting rules for tweets in SEC deal.
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has reached a deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle a dispute over his use of Twitter, agreeing to submit his public statements about the company’s finances and other topics to vetting by its legal counsel, according to a court filing on Friday.
If it is approved by a judge, the deal means the Tesla founder no longer faces the prospect of being held in contempt for violating an earlier settlement with the agency, which had required him to submit statements “material” to investors for prior review.
The new agreement, disclosed in a filing in Manhattan federal court, lays out in more detail exactly what kinds of statements must be reviewed.
“It could really have turned out far worse for him,” said Stephen Diamond, a professor of securities law at Santa Clara University. “The consequences of thumbing his nose at the SEC could have been far worse for him and the company.”
Restricted Tweet Topics
- Statements about Tesla’s financial condition
- Proposed or potential deals, production numbers
- Performance projections
- Financing or lending arrangements
- Musk’s own transactions in the company’s securities.
- Additional topics as determined by the company’s board of directors
How long before Musk violates these rules? What about another forum such as Linked-In?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Does the SEC really mean it this time?
It’s a bizarre world. They have to treat Presidents and CEO’s like children.
Noone have to. Some just have the privilege to treat others like that at their discretion. Not just Presidents and CEOs, but in fact everyone else. Telling them what to do, punishing them by sending them to Gitmo or Siberia if they’re uppity, etc. It’s how totalitarianism always work: “We” are all Dear Leader’s children, who should be grateful to him for treating us exactly as he wishes, here in “his” country/household. Daddy knows best, after all.
The SEC has revealed it’s true nature as a voting machine in this fiasco. A celebrity has successfully, openly defied them and won. So much for their charter and the damage done by this pathetic enforcement action.
Because, when privileged Humpty Dumpties in totalitarian, financialized dystopias; tell their well indoctrinated underlings they should cheer for Dear Leader for “giving” them “freedom of speech”; “freedom of speech” can mean exactly that which the privileged twits want it mean at any given time.
Musk didn’t have to take his company public. He chose to take money from public sales of his stock. Listing a company comes with well-known restrictions that everyone else understands and is able to comply with.
Then the owners of the company should explain this to him. And fire him if his twitter account don’t comply with the rules they laid out when they hired him. No government intrusion into free speech required.
Someone (family member?) could post about these forbidden topics on Musk’s behalf. The agreement has a loophole so large a Tesla SUV could drive through it.