SEC sues Musk and seeks ban for his tweets on go-private deal

(Sept 28): Elon Musk is in jeopardy of losing control over the electric-car company he founded, with the Securities and Exchange Commission suing the billionaire for his explosive August tweet about taking Tesla Inc private.

Moving with unusual speed, the SEC said in a lawsuit filed in New York that Musk misled investors by claiming falsely that he had lined up funding for the transaction. The SEC said it’s seeking unspecified monetary penalties and, more importantly, will request that a judge bar Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

For investors already worried about the company’s ability to produce cars fast enough to start generating profits, the prospect of losing Musk -- a billionaire and serial entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with Tesla -- was unnerving. They dumped the stock, driving it down 13 percent in after-market trading to below US$270 ($370) and deepening a selloff that began as the go-private gambit quickly unraveled in August.

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