Musk admits he ignored investors while tweeting on Tesla 'going private'

Elon Musk has admitted in a US court that he ignored his advisors and investors while tweeting about Tesla securing funding in 2018.

Musk, who briefly took the stand on Friday during his ongoing trial in a class-action lawsuit by Tesla investors in a court here, said that "I suppose I continued to tweet, yes", when asked if he ignored the pleas from his well-wishers.

The billionaire was also asked to describe the relationship between his tweets and Tesla's retail investors, reports The Verge.

"I care a great deal about retail investors. There are our most loyal and steadfast investors," he told the court.

He also said that "short selling should be made illegal".

"It is a means, in my opinion, for bad people on Wall Street to steal money from small investors. Not good," said Musk.

The controversial 2018 tweets by Musk on taking Tesla private has come back to haunt him and he stands to lose billions.

The plaintiffs have argued that Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private, in which he said he had "funding secured", led them to lose millions of dollars.

Musk in August 2018 had tweeted: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."

"Shareholders could either sell at 420 or hold shares & go private," he added.

His notorious tweet had cost him his role as Chairman of Tesla.

The August 2018 tweet resulted in Musk and Tesla reaching a settlement of fraud charges with the US SEC.

The settlement included $40 million in penalties, split equally between the company and Musk, and the removal of Musk as chairman of the Tesla board.

--IANS

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