Friday, March 29

Elon Musk to Pay a $20 million Fine & Step Down as the Chairman

Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric vehicle giant Tesla is the largest shareholder of the company and is again looking to buy another $20 million in common stock. As a part of the deal, Musk has agreed to pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman of the board for at least three years.

He will still keep a board seat and has not admitted or denied any of the SEC’s allegations. Along with this, Tesla will pay a separate $20 million fine. The company also agreed to monitor and pre-approve Musk’s communications through channels such as Twitter and the Tesla blog.

The 8-K document detailed a settlement agreement between Musk, Tesla and the SEC over allegations of securities fraud connected to his August 7 “funding secured” tweet about taking the electric automaker private.

At the bottom of the 8-K, Tesla outlined Musk’s plans to buy $20 million in stock. He stated, “Separate and apart from the settlement, Elon has notified Tesla that he intends to purchase from Tesla, and Tesla expects that it will issue and sell to Elon, $20 million of Tesla’s common stock during the next open trading window at the then-current market price.”