Elon Musk Mocks SEC Enforcement

At least he's being honest for the rest of us.

Elon Musk (Photo by Diego Donamaria/Getty Images for SXSW)

Remember that time Elon Musk was forced to step down as chairman of Tesla because he tweeted out material misinformation about his company which intentionally manipulated the stock price of the company?

Yeah, Elon Musk wants you to know that he’s still in charge, and the SEC probably did him a favor, and he’ll continue to say whatever the hell he wants, thank you very much.

The money quote from Musk’s interview on 60 Minutes (which aired last night) was probably: “I want to be clear: I do not respect the SEC,” Musk said. “I do not respect them.” That made the headlines, and I get that pissing on a bunch of people who are supposed to regulate you is newsworthy. One of these days, Elon Musk is going to be interviewed from the Delta Quadrant and say, “I want to be clear: I do not respect Issac Newton. I do not respect him.”

Losing Musk’s “respect” is not really a problem for the SEC. It’s the fact that the agency can place no effective legal restrictions on his power that illustrates why very few impossibly rich people respect the SEC. Musk went on to explain exactly how much no longer being “chairman” means to him. From NBC News:

He scoffed at the idea that [new chairwoman, Robyn Denholm] was put in place to keep him in line. “Yeah. It, it’s not realistic in the sense that I am the largest shareholder in the company. And I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want,” Musk said.

Boom. Roasted. Taking away Musk’s title does nothing to regulate his ability to run his company however he wants. The title means nothing to him.

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And most people know that the title means nothing, but the way the game is usually played, people in Musk’s position make a big show of being sad so it looks like the SEC imposed a “real” punishment. Most titans act like teenagers whose parents say “no television”: they cry and grudgingly “accept their punishment,” then go upstairs and watch whatever they were going to watch on their phone like always.

Musk could have played the same game, but he didn’t. Because… he doesn’t respect the SEC’s enforcement abilities.

And now, nobody else has to pretend to either.

Elon Musk says Tesla would consider buying idled GM plants, takes another swing at the SEC [NBC News]


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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.