Elon Musk To Pay 20 Million Dollars To Settle With The SEC And Has To Step Down As Tesla's Chairman

CBS News- Tesla CEO Elon Musk settled a fraud suit with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by agreeing to pay a $20 million fine and he will step down as chairman of Tesla’s board in 45 days, the SEC announced Saturday. Musk had been accused of misleading investors when he tweeted that he was thinking of taking Tesla private. The SEC said it had added an additional charge that Tesla had failed to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets. That charge is included in the settlement. As part of the settlement, Musk will step down as chairman of the board and will be replaced by an independent chairman, the SEC said. Musk is ineligible to be re-elected chairman for three years, but he can stay on as CEO. On Aug. 7, Musk tweeted that he had the funding in place to take Tesla private at $420 a share. The SEC alleged that Musk knew the funding was uncertain, and had yet to discuss numerous contingencies. After Musk’s tweet, Tesla’s stock jumped by over 6 percent on Aug. 7, the SEC said.

WOOOOOOOOOO BUDDY

Did I kill Elon Musk’s career? I’m pretty sure I did. All along people have been saying I’m wrong about Elon Musk and that he’s gonna be just fine because he’s super smart and I’m super stupid. Those last two things are for sure true but this dude has had a ROUGH 15 months and I’m at least gonna take some of the credit. He’s done a lot of it to himself by being the dumbest genius alive but props to me for calling out his bullshit long before anyone else. I’ve been on this beat for years and day by day it’s become clearer that I was right all along. Him having to step down as chairman of the board is further proof that I was right.

I will say, when I first saw this news I thought it said Elon Musk was being forced to step down from his role as CEO of Tesla. I was PUMPED. I thought all the journalistic work I’d put in for the last 2+ years was finally getting its big pay off. Instead, Elon Musk is stepping down as chairman of the board of Tesla and will remain the CEO. That’s not nearly as cool as him stepping down from his role as CEO.  Sure it’s a big deal and I’m sure he’ll eventually step down as CEO as he continues to expose his own idiocy but damn. When my brain read the BREAKING NEWS tweets as him being forced out as CEO I was the happiest person in the world for like 7 seconds. I was ready to dance on graves like my boss.

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Also, the 20 million dollar settlement is a bit of a letdown too. Elon Musk is worth like 20 billion dollars which means 20 million dollars is almost nothing to him. Elon Musk has 20 million dollars in-between the seats of his shitty Tesla. I thought the fraud investigation by the SEC was gonna do two things. I thought it was going to force him out as Tesla’s CEO and I thought it was going to fuck up his wallet in a substantial and meaningful way. Neither of those things have happened with this latest news. Again, both of these things are likely dominos in a long line of dominos that end with Elon no longer being Tesla’s CEO. The writing is on the wall and everybody from Tesla board members to Tesla stockholders hate the guy so he’ll be gone eventually. I just wish it was happening today.

With all that said, WOOF