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Elon Musk is known to be the billionaire businessman behind Tesla and SpaceX and Twitter.
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He is considered the second richest man in the world, with 277.3 billion dollars.
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According to reports, most of this bulging portfolio has been won in the last year.
This Monday, it was revealed that the magnate Elon Musk, the main shareholder of the electric car company Tesla, said in the civil trial for fraud promoted against him by investors of the company, that he had sufficient capital to take the company public in 2018 thanks to funds from Saudi Arabia and his own participation from SpaceX.
It was learned that Elon Musk told the jurors that he was sure he had obtained financial support from Saudi investors in 2018 to privatize its electric car maker, and could have even used his stake in the rocket company SpaceX to finance a buyout.
According to the US media, in a trial in the federal court of San Francisco, in the United States, the billionaire, who said he was tired from lack of sleep, he spoke in a low, calm voice during approximately five hours of testimony.
“Just with the SpaceX shares, I felt that the financing was secured” for the purchase, he told a jury, referring to the aerospace company where he is also chief executive. He later added that he decided not to take Tesla private due to a lack of support from some investors and a desire to avoid a lengthy process.
Musk told investors’ lawyer Nicholas Porritt, who met with representatives of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund on July 31, 2018, the Public Investment Fund, at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
Likewise, on that second day of calendar June, Musk said that did not discuss an acquisition pricebut the Saudi representatives made it clear that they would do whatever it takes to make the purchase happen.
“PIF unequivocally wanted to take Tesla private,” he said.
The trial tests Musk’s penchant for using Twitter to express his sometimes irreverent views, and when the second richest person in the world may be responsible for crossing the line.
Recall that in this lawsuit, millions of dollars are at stake for shareholders who claim they suffered losses after Musk tweeted in August 2018 that he had “funds secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that “Investor support is confirmed.”
At that time, Tesla’s stock price increased after Musk’s tweets and then fell when it became clear that the purchase would not go through.
Given that, a jury will decide whether Musk artificially inflated Tesla’s stock price by touting the prospects of a buyout, and if so, by how much.
Thus, plaintiffs have already overcome major legal hurdles in the rare securities class action lawsuit, and US Judge Edward Chen ruled last May that Musk’s post was false and reckless.
Elon Musk tells the jury that investors don’t always take your tweets as expected
But in Monday’s testimony, Musk said he believed he could have sold enough shares of his rocket company SpaceX to finance a purchase, and he “felt the funding was secured” with SpaceX shares alone.
However, Musk was also sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweets, resulting in bundled settlements. $40 million for him and Tesla and a requirement that a Tesla lawyer review some of his tweets in advance.
For his part, Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, said in his opening statement last week that Musk thought he had Saudi financing and tried to protect the “common shareholder” of the media leaks via tweets, even though his tweet contained “technical inaccuracies”.
The trial will continue in the coming days and the defendants also include current and former Tesla directors, who, according to Spiro, had motives. “pure” in his response to Musk’s plan.
This trial once again puts the second richest man in the world in the eye of the hurricane, as we remember that last year the billionaire was also on trial for the controversial purchase of Twitter.
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