SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk returned to the podium on the third day Tuesday as part of a class-action lawsuit filed by Tesla investors who allege he misled them with a tweet about a deal that never went through, indicating that his intention was to let his shareholders know that he was considering a buyout.
The 51-year-old billionaire has resumed — after being friendly questioned by his own attorney, Alex Spiro — his staunch defense in a lawsuit centered on two 2018 tweets that said he raised money to take Tesla private.
When Spiro gently nudged him, Musk told the nine-member jury that he only stated that he was “considering” a Tesla buyout, but never promised a deal would be made. But Musk said he thinks it’s important to get the word out to investors that Tesla may be ready to end its eight-year run as a public company.
“I had no evil motives,” Musk said. “I wanted to do the right thing for all shareholders.”
The day before, when questioned by a lawyer representing Tesla shareholders, Musk was at times belligerent, indignant and annoyed. Despite all this, Musk insisted that he had blocked financial support for what could have been a $72 billion buyout of Tesla during 2018 meetings with representatives of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, although the specific amount or price of the funding was not discussed.
When presented with texts and emails indicating that a Saudi fund spokesman had never promised the money for a full Tesla buyout, Musk claimed these were nothing more than the words of a man trying to backtrack on a previous promise made in private conversations.
When Musk was at the booth on Tuesday, his disrespect for lawyers, who sued on behalf of Tesla shareholders who owned the company’s shares for 10 days in August 2018, surfaced.
“I don’t believe they actually represent shareholders,” Musk chuckled, prompting a rebuke from U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, who ordered the remark removed from the record.
In the class-action lawsuit, Tesla investors allege that Musk, who has since used Twitter for the $44 billion buyout, misled them by claiming that funding had been secured to privatize his electric car company at $420 a share. But the deal was never close to happening, and the tweet led to a $40 million settlement with securities regulators.
Musk has previously claimed to have entered into the settlement under duress and claimed he never wavered in his belief that he had the money to make the deal.
On Tuesday, he pointed to his nearly 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur who has never had a problem raising money from a range of past ventures, including PayPal and Neuralink, as well as Tesla and SpaceX.
“It’s not a problem for me to raise money,” Musk said, chuckling. “I’ve done good work for investors, and when you do good work for investors, they give you money.”
The lawsuit hinges on whether a pair of tweets posted by Musk on August 7, 2018 hurt Tesla shareholders in the 10-day period leading up to Musk’s admission that the buyout he foresaw would not happen. The allegations led Musk and Tesla to reach a $40 million settlement without admitting any wrongdoing.
In the first of a 2018 tweet, Musk said “funding is secured” for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla – or $420 a share – at a time when the electric car maker was still struggling with production issues and costing far less than it does now. A few hours later, Musk posted another tweet saying a deal was imminent.
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