
Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have violated the terms of an October 2018 settlement with the SEC, which is asking a federal judge to find him in to be contempt of the deal. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elon Musk’s in trouble for another tweet — and this time, the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking a ruling that revives the possibility he could lose his Tesla CEO job.
The regulator asked a federal judge to find the billionaire entrepreneur in contempt of an October settlement reached after the agency sought his removal as CEO and chairman last year for a tweet about a funding deal that proved ephemeral. Under the terms of that agreement, Musk was supposed to have any possibly market-moving tweets vetted — a process he publicly dismissed.
The SEC said in a court filing late Monday that he “did not seek or receive pre-approval prior to publishing” a February 19, 2019 tweet to his nearly 25 million followers that Tesla would likely build about half a million cars this year. Four hours later, Musk amended his Twitter comment to note that the production pace would reach an annualized rate of 500,000 units by year-end. Tesla General Counsel Dane Butswinkas, the person who’d likely have to review Musk’s tweets, resigned the following day.

ELON MUSK VIA TWITTER
The SEC “respectfully moves this Court for an order to show cause why Defendant Elon Musk should not be held in contempt for violating the clear and unambiguous terms of the Court’s October 16, 2018 Final Judgment,” it said in the filing with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Tesla shares fell 4% after hours.
While the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the development, Musk did – via Twitter late Monday, naturally, to defend his production comments, saying “SEC forgot to read Tesla earnings transcript, which clearly states 350k to 500k. How embarrassing.”