Tesla shareholders are suing Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, claiming that Musk manipulated the share price of Tesla shares to reduce their price. Elon Musk tweeted in 2018 that he is planning on transforming Tesla into a private company because of obtaining the required funding from a Saudi Arabian finance firm. However, the plan of Musk never came true, but instead created a situation of panic among shareholders in Tesla. This panic cost billions to Tesla shareholders as the price of Tesla shares plummeted significantly because Musk announced taking the company private. Because of such actions, the US regulators had to step in and later decided to remove Elon Musk from his position as the Chairman of the company. The case is in the court for which the jurors have been decided. When asked about their thoughts on Elon Musk, jurors shared mixed feelings. Some jurors stated Musk was smart while some called him narcissistic. On the other hand, Elon Musk said that it is unlikely that he will get justice at the court in San Francisco.
On August 7, 2018, Elon Musk made a tweet he had procured the funding required to take the company private. If this tweet was true, it would have been a total funding of $72 billion which was required for a complete buyout. But later, the deal never went through and people who feared that Musk would take the company private had either sold their shares at loss or suffered a loss in the share market as the value of Tesla shares plummeted due to the possibility of the company going private. These Tesla shareholders held Musk accountable for all these events as his tweet led to this situation of panic which caused Tesla shareholders to lose billions of dollars in total. Musk replied to these accusations by saying that he believed that he had managed to secure funding to take the company private from a Saudi Arabian Investment firm. Through this response, it was clear that Musk had intentions to take the company private but failed to secure the required funding amount. He made it clear that by doing so, he had not committed any security fraud which went against SEC guidelines.
The legal battle between Elon Musk and Tesla shareholders is going on in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. However, Elon Musk has expressed his displeasure against the ongoing legal situation as he believes that he will not get justice in San Francisco's District Court because of not getting fair juries. Musk wanted this trial to proceed at Texas District Court for the same reason. Musk has been in the news throughout 2022 because of his controversial decisions surrounding Twitter. Since acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has significantly damaged his social image and his net worth as he took many decisions which acted against his image of a revolutionary businessman. Perhaps, the most controversial decision by Musk was firing almost 70% of Twitter employees, which left many people in displease. As Twitter has its headquarters set in San Francisco, California, Musk believes that the jury, in this case, will have a significant bias against him because of decisions surrounding Twitter.
