Tesla's Stock Drops After SEC Asks To Hold Elon Musk In Contempt Over Another Tweet

Tesla Inc TSLA's stock dropped more than 5 percent in after-hours trading Monday.

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a judge to hold Elon Musk in contempt for violating last year’s settlement with the agency, raising new a round of regulatory issues," Bloomberg first reported.

Last September, the SEC charged Musk with securities fraud for his Aug. 7, 2018 tweets about taking the company private and also charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets. The two sides settled, but that hasn't stopped Musk from sharing his feelings.

“I want to be clear: I do not respect the SEC,” Musk told "60 Minutes" in December. “I do not respect them.”

Here is the recent tweet that has the CEO in hot water yet again:

Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019

Three days after the tweet was sent, the SEC confirmed with Telsa’s lawyers it hadn't been reviewed.

The Verge wrote, "Tesla’s lawyer worked with Musk to correct the original tweet in a follow-up, the SEC document says. But Musk’s initial projection still may be considered a violation because the information could be considered material to Tesla shareholders — and the lawyers didn’t see it before Musk sent it."

At time of publication, Tesla's stock was trading down 3.6 percent to $288.02 per share. The stock is down about 10 percent in 2019. Related Links:

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