Elon Musk found not liable in trial over 2018 Tesla tweets

A jury has found Elon Musk not guilty of fraud over a series of tweets in 2018 in which he declared he had "funding secured" to take electric car company Tesla private.

The tweets caused the share price of Tesla to fluctuate dramatically. Shareholders sued Musk, claiming the billionaire had acted recklessly.

"Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!" Musk tweeted after the verdict on Friday.

"I am deeply appreciative of the jury's unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case."

What did Musk tweet?

On August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 (€388) per share — roughly 23% more than the previous day's closing price.

Musk tweeted that he had "funding secured" and said the next day that "investor support is confirmed."

This caused the stock price to soar, but when it became clear the supposed buyout would not happen, the share price crashed again.

In a separate lawsuit against Musk, the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that the billionaire had rounded up the supposed buyout price to $420 per share because he had recently learned about the number's "significance in marijuana culture" and thought his girlfriend would find it funny.

Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro said the tweet was "technically inaccurate" but added that "a bad tweet doesn't make it fraud."

"The whole case is built on bad word choice," he said. "Who cares about bad word choice?" 

How did the shareholders react?

An economist hired by Tesla shareholders calculated investor losses as high as $12 billion.

"We are disappointed with the verdict and are considering next steps," said Nicholas Porritt, a lawyer representing the shareholders.

zc/fb (AP, AFP, Reuters)