Judge approves Musk, SEC agreement over Twitter use by CEO
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday approved an agreement between Tesla Inc, CEO Elon Musk and the US Securities and Exchange Commission over Musk's use of Twitter, showed a court case.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan on Manhattan approved the deal drawn up on Friday to settle the dispute where the SEC had attempted to find Musk contempt for a security fraud violation last year. [L1N2281M6]
Earlier this month, Nathan had ordered the parties to prepare an event between themselves.
The new agreement describes in more detail what types of statements Musk must undergo by Tesla's legal advisor before publication, such as financial statements, previously unreported production or delivery numbers and other topics.
Regulators had argued that a February tweet by Musk about Tesla's production number violated the previous settlement, as it had not been discovered by the company's lawyers. Musk opposed the tweet was not material.
SEC sued Musk last year to make false statements after he tweeted on August 7 that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla privately at $ 420 per share.
The parties finally settled and the agreement encouraged Tesla's lawyers to pre-approve written communications, including tweets with material information about the company.
(Reporting of Alexandria Sage in San Francisco; Further Reporting of Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing of Sonya Hepinstall)