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Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a federal judge to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt for violating a settlement deal reached last year. Musk tweeted on February 19 that "Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019." Hours later, Musk sent a follow-up tweet indicating that the company will actually deliver just 400,000 cars this year.
Although Musk corrected his mistake, regulators scolded Tesla's CEO because he "once again published inaccurate and material information about Tesla to his over 24 million Twitter followers.
The SEC noted that he did not ask for or receive company approval before publishing his tweet.
His October 2018 settlement with the SEC mandates that he receive pre-approval of any social media posts with information that's "material" to shareholders.
Tesla agreed to establish a board committee to oversee those posts.
The SEC said Monday that Musk had not "made a diligent or good faith effort" to comply with the settlement. The SEC's court filing Monday sent Tesla's stock down more than 4% in after hours trading.
Tesla (TSLA) and Musk reached separate $20 million deals with the SEC last fall to settle securities fraud charges against the CEO. As part of the agreement, Musk was forced to step down as Tesla's chairman.
The billionaire CEO initially got in trouble with regulators over a series of tweets last August about a potential transaction to take Tesla private.
Musk said he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share, causing the company's stock to soar. But he had not secured the funding, according to the SEC.
Tesla and Musk's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Musk has publicly disparaged the settlement. In an an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" in December, Musk said he didn't "respect" the SEC. He also claimed no one at the company was proofreading all his posts.
"The only tweets that would have to be ... reviewed would be if a tweet had a probability of causing a movement in the stock," he said. "Otherwise, it's — hello, First Amendment."
When asked how he could avoid moving markets if the company isn't reviewing all of his tweets, Musk said, "I guess we might make some mistakes. Who knows?" He added, "Nobody's perfect."
In its court filing Monday, the SEC pointed to the "60 Minutes" interview as evidence that Musk is "not serious" about the settlement agreement.
