US authorities investigating Tesla after Elon Musk's statements about withdrawing company from stock market

US authorities investigating Tesla after Elon Musk’s statements about withdrawing company from stock market

Newsroom 17/08/2018 | 09:05

Federal authorities in the United States summoned a Tesla investigation to find out whether Elon Musk told the truth when he wrote on Twitter last week that he had secured the necessary funding to withdraw the electric car manufacturer from stock market.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has so requested information from all Tesla directors, but is unclear what information the authorities require.

The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that SEC has made preliminary inquiries to find out what Musk was based on when it wrote on Twitter that it secured the funding needed to withdraw from the company’s stock exchange.

On August 7, Elon Musk surprised investors when he wrote on Twitter that he was considering Tesla’s withdrawal at USD 420 a share, or around USD 72 billion, which would be 20 percent higher compared to the price at which the company’s securities were traded on that day.

In a Monday post on the company’s blog, Musk made clear that talks with the sovereign wealth fund in Saudi Arabia were at the heart of his statement.