Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has faced rising criticism. Tesla investors in California are now suing Musk on tweets he made about the company in the summer of 2018.
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| Elon Musk |
Elon Musk was sued by investors over tweets concerning Tesla. In 2018, he declared via the short message service that he planned to take the automaker off the public exchange and that the money was "secured".
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has failed in his attempt to relocate an investor lawsuit over his 2018 tweets from San Francisco to Texas. According to court records filed on Friday, the trial will now commence on Tuesday. The first step is to pick the jury. Musk's attorneys alleged that the San Francisco jury was heavily prejudiced against the tech entrepreneur. However, the judge did not agree.
The complaint is in response to Musk's tweets from the summer of 2018 proclaiming his intention to take Tesla public and that he has "secured" funds to do so. However, it was later revealed that no definitive agreements had been made. Investors accuse Musk of causing price swings caused by his tweets in the complaint.
Musk's attorneys stated that a fair trial in California would be impossible due to questionnaires filled out by potential jurors. They emphasized that around two-thirds of the contenders have unfavourable opinions of the tech mogul.
However, Judge Edward Chen emphasised that compassion was not a consideration in jury selection during a hearing on Friday, according to financial agency Bloomberg. So a lady who had written that Musk was "unsympathetic" remained in the running. Similarly, writing on the form, "The automobiles are lovely, but Mr. Musk is a moron," was not disqualified. The jury candidate, who was described as the "next Trump" and a "narcissist with electoral views," was eliminated.
Tesla was still based in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, when the case was filed. Meanwhile, Musk has relocated his headquarters to Austin, Texas. The 51-year-old, long regarded as a technological genius, has displayed right-wing political views, notably in the aftermath of Twitter's recent acquisition, which has made him less popular in California, which is generally liberal.
Judge Chef has already concluded that Musk's comments at the time were incorrect. The jury will be informed of this, but they must make their own decision. They must also establish if Musk behaved on purpose and whether his statements harmed investors.