The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked a federal judge to hold Tesla CEO Elon Musk in contempt for violating the terms of a recent settlement agreement, rekindling tensions between the celebrity billionaire and the country’s regulators.
The SEC accused Musk of breaking a deal to seek preapproval of any potentially market-moving tweets about the car company when he tweeted on Feb. 19 that Tesla would make about 500,000 cars this year. Four hours later, he tweeted that he “meant to say” the cars’ weekly production rate would equal up to about 500,000 on an annual basis but that the total car deliveries this year would be closer to about 400,000.
