Nuked Hey everyone! Nuked here, ready to bring you the latest news about Elon Musk’s securities fraud trial. As you know, this case has been making headlines for quite some time now and it looks like it’s finally coming to a head.
In today’s opening arguments, lawyers representing a class of Tesla investors argued that Musk’s 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private led them to lose millions of dollars. Attorney Nicholas Porritt stated that “His lies caused regular people, like Glen Littleton, to lose millions and millions of dollars.” He went on to say that it’s “critical” that Musk is held liable in order for markets to operate normally and fairly.
On the other hand, Musk’s side argued that the billionaire actually did want to take Tesla private and that funding “wasn’t going to be an issue” until potential investors in Saudi Arabia had backed out. Attorney Alex Spiro said that Musk simply chose his words poorly when crafting his tweet, calling them “informal, sporadic thoughts,” and noting that there were “technical inaccuracies” in the phrase “funding secured.”
The day was rounded off by testimony from the lead plaintiff in the case, Glen Littleton. When shown the “funding secured” tweet, Littleton said he was “pretty shocked” because it put at risk almost all his positions. He confirmed that he viewed “funding secured” as the most important part of the tweet because it made the taking private more definite in his mind. Littleton hopes that the lawsuit will make him financially whole again.
