Tesla (TSLA) disclosed in a quarterly regulatory filing on Monday that it received a new subpoena from the SEC on June 13 regarding “our governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement.” That deal, which stripped Musk of his title as Tesla chairman while allowing him to stay on as CEO, came on the heels of Musk’s 2018 tweet that he had “secured financing” to take Tesla private.
The SEC charged that despite discussions with Saudi investors, Musk did not have the funds secured to take Tesla private. As part of that settlement, Musk agreed to that charge and also agreed to submit any tweets containing information that would be material to investors to other executives at Tesla for approval before sending it.
Musk has been a vocal critic of the SEC since that settlement. In a TED conference earlier this year, Musk said he only agreed to a deal because if he had continued to fight the agency, Tesla’s banks would have cut off funding at a time when it needed money.
“I had to [to lie] to save Tesla’s life and that’s the only reason,” Musk said at the TED conference in April.
He went on to compare the experience to having someone point a gun at his child’s head.
Musk’s lawyers also filed complaints with the federal judge overseeing the settlement, complaining that the SEC is trying to “chill the exercise of First Amendment rights” because Musk is an “outspoken critic of the government.”
In addition to investigating Musk’s role at Tesla, the SEC is looking into his tweets about his attempts to buy I tweet (TWTR). The agency sent a letter to Musk on June 2 with questions about his tweets about the takeover effort, including his tweets about the deal being cut, according to a Thursday regulatory filing. The agency had already questioned Musk in an April letter about his apparent delay in disclosing his large Twitter stake.
Tesla previously disclosed a subpoena related to an SEC investigation into the settlement in November 2021. Tesla wrote in Monday’s filing that the company “routinely” cooperates with regulatory and government investigations, including subpoenas. The SEC did not have a response to questions about its latest call to Tesla.
— CNN Business’ Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
