SEC Blasted Tesla In May 2020 For Failing To Oversee Musk’s Tweets

In previously undisclosed documents, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, securities regulators told Tesla last year that CEO Elon Musk’s use of Twitter had twice violated a court-ordered policy requiring his tweets to be preapproved by company lawyers.

In letters sent to Tesla in 2019 and 2020, the SEC reportedly said tweets that Musk wrote about Tesla’s solar roof production volumes and its stock price hadn’t undergone the required preapproval by Tesla’s lawyers.

As a reminder, Musk had publicly mocked the SEC even after settling the previous fraud claims with the agency.

Specifically, The Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC told Tesla in May 2020 that:

the company had failed “to enforce these procedures and controls despite repeated violations by Mr. Musk.”

The letter, signed by a senior SEC official in its San Francisco office, added:

“Tesla has abdicated the duties required of it by the court’s order.”

This perhaps explains why Musk himself was quick to admit in May 2020 that “no”, his twitter remarks were not vetted.

Given the fact that we are just discovering these details now – at least 13 months after they occurred – as far as we can see, nothing at all has been done to either re-enforce the SEC-ordered oversight by Tesla lawyers, or to slow Musk’s roll in tweeting frequency and absurdity (cough Dogecoin cough)…

Is the SEC going to – wait for it – tell Tesla to preclear Musk’s tweets (again)?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 25, 2021

…we can only imagine how long it will be before some actual actions are taken… or enforcements hardened over the carmaker’s incessant need to ‘share’.