Elon Musk and Tesla will go on trial over allegations that shareholders were defrauded of billions of dollars over his tweets.
CEO Written in 2018 He had “secured” funding to take the electric car maker private, and investor support was later “confirmed,” causing stock prices to rise and then fall.
less than three weeks later, Musk dropped the plan.
Investors who bought and sold stocks in the days after the tweet Unspecified damages are being soughtbut claim muskTweets cost them “billions of dollars”.
Seven current and former tesla The directors are among the defendants, who deny any wrongdoing.
Mr. Musk – Forced to resign as company chairman After a $40m (£32.5m) settlement with US regulators – Can appear in court in the case, according to court documents.
Opening arguments will begin Tuesday in San Francisco once the jury is selected.
Last week, Judge Edward Chen rejected Musk’s request to transfer the case to the state of Texas, where the billionaire expressed concern that potential jurors in California would be biased against him.
He cited negative media coverage of thousands of jobs he cut twitterheadquartered in San Francisco, followed by He took over the social media platform last October.
The jury will be tasked with deciding whether Musk’s tweets influenced investors, whether he acted intentionally, and whether damages should be awarded.
Judge Chen has ruled that these statements SpaceX owner made is untrue, but the defendant will argue that he has good reason to believe that the funds to take Tesla private are secure.
the context of the trial was Sliding shares of the companywhich is expected to last for three weeks.