Elon Musk is not above the law, lawyer says as trial nears end

A lawyer for Tesla Inc shareholders suing Elon Musk told jurors on Friday that the world's second-richest person is not above the law, and should be liable for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding to take his electric car company private.

A lawyer for Tesla Inc shareholders suing Elon Musk told jurors on Friday that the world's second-richest person is not above the law, and should be liable for falsely tweeting that he had secured funding to take his electric car company private. "This case ultimately is about whether rules that apply to everyone else should also apply to Elon Musk," the shareholders' lawyer Nicholas Porritt said in his closing argument in San Francisco federal court, with Musk looking on in the courtroom.

The trial is a test of whether Musk, the world's second-richest person, can be held liable for his sometimes impulsive use of Twitter. Shareholders accused Musk of misleading them on Aug. 7, 2018, by tweeting that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share, a 23% premium to its last closing price and valuing the company at $72 billion, and had "funding secured."

They also accused Musk of lying when he tweeted later that day that "investor support is confirmed." A jury of nine will decide whether the tweet artificially inflated Tesla's share price by playing up the status of funding for the deal, and if so, by how much.

Investors are seeking billions in damages from Musk, Tesla and several of the company's directors. Tesla's share price traded above where it had been before Musk's tweets for much of the 10-day period covered by the lawsuit, but fell as it became clear no buyout would happen.

During the three-week trial, jurors heard testimony from witnesses including Tesla directors, Musk's financial advisers and Musk himself. The billionaire testified that funding was not an issue when he sent the tweets.

He said he had lined up financing, including a verbal commitment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, and could have used his stake in SpaceX to fund the deal. But Musk admitted on the stand that he lacked specific commitments from potential backers.

The defense team, which also is expected to make closing arguments on Friday, has acknowledged the tweets contained "technical inaccuracies," but said Musk was focused on making sure small shareholders had the same information as large investors who knew about the potential buyout.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)