Trial on Tesla boss Musk’s old tweets that he had raised money to take the auto firm private is set to start on Tuesday. While still grappling with the fallout from a company he did take private, beleaguered billionaire Elon Musk is now facing a trial over a company he did not.
Long before Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn in October, he had set his sights on Tesla, the electric automaker where he continues to serve as CEO and from which he derives most of his wealth and fame. But the buyout never materialized, and now Musk will have to explain his actions under oath in a United States federal court in San Francisco. The trial, which begins on Tuesday with jury selection, was triggered by a class-action lawsuit on behalf of investors who owned Tesla stock for 10 days in August 2018. Musk has since contended he entered that settlement under duress and maintained he believed he had locked up financial backing for a Tesla buyout during meetings with representatives from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.