Tesla Buyout Lawsuit: Elon Musk Claims Funding was Secured from 'SpaceX Alone,' Not Fraudulent

Tesla's buyout lawsuit returned to the courts for its hearing this Monday, and it gained a new statement from Elon Musk, the star witness and defendant who is facing the trial for allegedly defrauding investors. In his recent statement, Musk claimed that he felt that the funding was secured, saying that his tweets were not fraudulent.

The tech CEO then relates his past situation from the Twitter acquisition, where he used his money and stocks to use as funding in buying the social media company, claiming that it is the same as his Tesla remarks.

Tesla Buyout Lawsuit: Elon Musk's Recent Statement

According to a report by AP News, Elon Musk faced the plaintiffs, judge, and jury to explain further about his tweets from 2018, with the latest development of him claiming that he did not defraud investors. The Tesla CEO said that he had enough money to take the company private, saying that he " felt that funding was secured."

Musk claimed that this is because of his SpaceX stock ownership alone, which he may use to purchase the company back from investors, and proceed with the privatization almost five years ago.

"My SpaceX shares alone would have meant that funding was secured," says the star witness.

Moreover, the said funds were also secure due to the private meetings he had with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund amidst the plans for Tesla but did not mention any specifics.

No Fraud for Tesla Private Tweet in 2018

As per CNBC's report, the businessman said that he could have sold SpaceX stock and makeup for the needed funds, further affirming that his tweet on August 7, 2018, was not a fad.

"Just as I sold stock in Tesla to buy Twitter. ... I didn't want to sell Tesla stock but I did sell Tesla stock," he added.

Elon Musk's Acquisition

One of the main arguments that Musk stated on the witness stand was the Twitter acquisition, one where he used his money to add to the fund needed to purchase the platform. In a previous report, Musk sold a massive lot of his shares in December, worth $3.5 billion or more than 20 million Tesla shares to keep Twitter afloat.

However, between April to December, the tech CEO sold as much as $23 billion in total, for his needed money to purchase Twitter which took place towards the end of October 2022.

In this class-action lawsuit, should the multi-tech CEO lose the case, billions of his personal money may be paid off to the defrauded victims and investors who pushed for this prosecution.

The Tesla buyout lawsuit still has ways to go and only recently started evaluating the happenings from 2018 and the present. Chief Twit argued that he did not defraud investors with his 2018 tweet, claiming that he already secured funding from his companies, money, and external partners who were willing to buy Tesla's entirety and take it private with him.