SAN FRANCISCO — A jury on Friday decided that Elon Musk did not defraud investors with a 2018 tweet about electric car maker Tesla.
A nine-member jury reached a verdict in less than two hours after three weeks of trial. It was a major piece of evidence for Musk, who spent nearly eight hours on the witness stand defending the motives of the August 2018 tweet that was central to the trial.
Musk, 51, wasn’t in attendance for the brief reading of the verdict, but made a surprise appearance early Friday for his closing argument with an entirely different portrait of him.
Shortly after the verdict was handed down, Musk took to Twitter (the bully’s pulpit he now owns) to celebrate.
“Good, people’s wisdom won!” Musk Tweeted.
Even though Musk was not required to attend closing arguments, the decision to step aside from other responsibilities and participate in closing arguments may have affected jurors, a former federal prosecutor said. said Michael Friedman, who is now in private practice. For law firms that have represented celebrities and corporate executives.
“It shows he has a presence,” Friedman said.
Attorney Nicholas Porritt, who defended outraged Tesla investors, said he was disappointed after he urged jurors to accuse Musk of reckless behavior that threatened to create “anarchy” in closing arguments.
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, confirmed that the 2018 tweet was “technically incorrect.” However, he told jurors:
“I don’t think this is the kind of behavior you would expect from a large public company,” said a depressed Pollitt after discussing the verdict with several jurors who had gathered to speak with him. “People can draw their own conclusions as to whether things are okay.”
Jurors said that during their discussions with Porritt, they found Musk’s testimony that he believed he had raised money from Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund without written assurances that it was credible. It also questions whether Musk’s tweets were the only reason Tesla’s stock price fluctuated during his 10 days in August 2018.
The lawsuit joins Tesla investors in a class action lawsuit against Musk, the CEO of both the electric car maker and the Twitter service it bought for $44 billion a few months ago.
Shortly before boarding his private jet on August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted: he had money To take Tesla private, even though it turns out he didn’t get an ironclad commitment to a deal that would cost between $20 billion and $70 billion.Hours later, Mr. Musk another tweet It indicates that a transaction is imminent.
While denigrated as a rich and reckless narcissist and hailed as a visionary who cares about “little men,” Musk sat stoically in court early Friday during the trial’s closing arguments. I was.
Not only was Musk’s integrity put at stake in the trial, but it was also part of the fortune that established him as one of the richest people in the world.he may have been saddled With a multi-billion dollar damages claim Did the jury hold him responsible for the 2018 tweet? considered false by the judge presiding over the trial.
The ruling, handed down last year by U.S. District Judge Edward Cheng, left the jury to decide whether Mr. Musk’s tweets were reckless and he acted in ways that hurt Tesla’s shareholders.
“It might not have been that hard for the jury,” Friedman said.
While denigrated as a rich and reckless narcissist and hailed as a visionary who cares about “little men,” Musk sat stoically in court early Friday during the trial’s closing arguments. I was.
During the course of the hour-long presentation, Polritt pleaded with jurors to condemn Musk’s “loose association with the truth.”
“Our society is rule-based,” Polritt said. “We need rules to save us from anarchy. Rules should apply to Elon Musk just like everyone else.”
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, confirmed that the 2018 tweet was “technically incorrect.” But he told jurors, “Just because it’s a bad tweet doesn’t make it a scam.”
During about eight hours in the stands before trial, Musk claimed that he believed he had raised money from Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund to take Tesla private after eight years as a publicly traded company.he defended His original tweet in August 2018 was equally well-meaning, making sure that all Tesla investors knew the automaker might be on the way to ending operations as a public company. was intended.
“There was no malice,” Musk testified. “My intention was to do the right thing for all shareholders.”
Spiro repeated that theme in his closing argument.
“He was trying to include retail shareholders, moms and pops, little guys, and he was trying to keep himself from having any more power,” Spiro said.
Meanwhile, Politt concluded that Musk had firm commitments after a 45-minute meeting at the Tesla factory on July 31, 2018, with Saudi wealth fund president Yasir Al-Rumayyan. I laughed off the idea that I was sexually active. No written documentation.
In a 90-minute presentation, Spiro highlighted Musk’s track record of helping launch and run a list of companies that, in addition to Tesla, include digital payments pioneer PayPal and rocket ship maker SpaceX. The Austin, Texas-based automaker is now valued at nearly $600 billion, even as its stock price plummeted last year amid fears that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter would distract from Tesla. Worth it.
Spiro recalled Musk’s roots as a South African immigrant who came to Silicon Valley to build an innovative technology company, and described his clients as “the kind of people who believe the impossible is possible.” .
