US financial regulatory agency says Tesla's Musk violated deal

This article is more than 12 months old

Feb 27, 2019 06:00 am

WASHINGTON: The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Tesla founder Elon Musk on Monday of failing to comply with a court-endorsed deal between the electric automaker and the regulatory agency.

According to the SEC, a tweet from Mr Musk on Tesla's 2019 production levels violates the deal, under which his tweets had to be reviewed prior to being published.

On "Feb 19, 2019, Musk tweeted, 'Tesla made 0 cars in 2011 but will make around 500k in 2019.' Musk did not seek or receive pre-approval prior to publishing this tweet, which was inaccurate and disseminated to over 24 million people," the SEC said in a court filing.

"Musk has thus violated the court's final judgment by engaging in the very conduct that the pre-approval provision of the final judgment was designed to prevent."

Hours after the tweet, Mr Musk corrected the figure, saying Tesla would produce 400,000 cars this year, as it had previously announced due to production issues for its Model 3.- AFP