An attorney for Tesla’s investors said: Elon Muskthe company’s CEO “lied” when he said funding had been “secured” to delist the company from the stock market, but Musk’s lawyer said the billionaire merely used “wrong words” to express his plans in 2018, CNBC reported.
glen littleton seeks, The investor in Teslato seek compensation on behalf of shareholders who traded in the company’s stock in the days after Musk posted his plan to delist the company on Twitter in August 2018.
Nicholas Porritt, the chief investor attorney, told a San Francisco jury during opening remarks that what he believed were Musk’s lies caused “ordinary people” to lose millions of dollars.
“Millions of dollars were lost when his lies spread,” he added
Alex Spyro, Musk’s lawyer, disputed that characterization, saying the billionaire was “serious” about delisting the company from the stock market in 2018, but eventually faced shareholder opposition.
“We will know very soon that this was not fraud, not even close,” Spyro said during his opening remarks.
He told the jury that Musk believed financing was not an issue and was “taking steps” to close a deal
Spyro explained that while the tweets contained “technical errors”, Musk was concerned that some investors knew of his plan to delist the company from the stock market and wanted to pass the information on to the “ordinary shareholder” who “wanted to protect him”.
“He used the wrong words, in a hurry,” Spyro added
A nine-member jury will decide whether the tweets artificially inflated Tesla’s share price by exaggerating the financing status of a deal, and if so, by how much.
Among the defendants are current and former Tesla executives, who Spyro said had “pure” motives in their response to Musk’s plan.
Spyro said Tesla’s share price jumped in response to Musk saying he was considering delisting the company from the stock market, which he said was true. He added that he did not jump on Musk’s assertion about the funding
Each year, shareholders file lawsuits against hundreds of companies and their executives for alleged securities fraud, but very few of these cases reach the trial stage. Most of them are rejected by the courts or are being settled
