Elon Musk appeared in court to fight allegations of defrauding Tesla shareholders.
The 51-year-old billionaire - who took Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion - tweeted in 2018 that he had “secured” the funding to make the electric supercar manufacturer private and that investment was “confirmed,” which prompted the share price to rise and then dip.
In the following weeks, Elon went back on the plan and now investors who traded stock after the posts are after damages and claimed that Elon’s posts lead them to lose “billions”.
The court heard how the SpaceX founder’s social media messages caused a $40 million settlement with securities regulatory bodies, along with a class-action that accused him of misleading investors and how he was made to resign as the company’s chairman.
According to Sky News, Elon was in court on Friday (20.01.23) for roughly half an hour to give sworn testimony before a jury of nine people, journalists and various members of the public before the trial was adjourned for the weekend and being instructed to come back on Monday to be cross-examined further.
Before his arrival in the California court, the presiding judge Edward Chen denied Elon’s request to have the case relocated to Texas as he felt the jurors in the Sunshine State would be prejudiced against him.
In his remarks to the court, the controversial mogul called his extensive usage of Twitter as “the most democratic way” to share information while conceding that the 240 character limit on tweets made it difficult to be as clear as one could possibly be.
Elon said: "I think you can absolutely be truthful [on Twitter].
"But can you be comprehensive? Of course not."
Elon’s purchase of Twitter has been seen as a negative by Tesla's shareholders due to the level of attention he has been given.
Last year, Tesla experienced a 65 per cent fall in their stock, a move that removed $700 billion from their value.
