Tesla Plaintiff Calls Musk's Latest Blog Post a 'Confession'
*By Hope King*
Elon Musk’s latest blog post did nothing but strengthen Will Chamberlain’s position that the Tesla CEO’s tweets from last week were fraudulent.
“It was almost a confession that he committed securities fraud,” Chamberlain told Cheddar on Monday.
Chamberlain is a plaintiff in a class-action suit against Tesla and Musk. The suit was [filed Friday afternoon](https://cheddar.com/videos/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-tesla-after-elon-musks-tweet) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and claims that Tesla and its CEO violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making allegedly false and misleading statements to defraud Tesla investors. Reed Katherein, the attorney for Chamberlain, agreed that Musk’s blog post read almost as a confession.
“It’s pretty clear that funding was not secured and that he did not have a reasonable basis for saying funding was secured,” Kathrein said.
In his [post](https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-taking-tesla-private), Musk said the Saudi sovereign wealth fund had "approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private," and that the Saudi's interest in the company gave him the confidence to announce last week that he had "secured" the necessary financing to take the company private. "Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction," Musk said.
Musk has come under increasing pressure to prove that a tweet [he posted last Tuesday](https://cheddar.com/videos/what-tesla-looks-like-as-a-private-vs-public-company) announcing the CEO’s intention to take the company private at $420 a share was based on some kind of firm commitment from outside investors.
The tweet included very specific language that is the target of an SEC inquiry and two [class-action](https://cheddar.com/videos/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-tesla-after-elon-musks-tweet) lawsuits: “Funding secured.”
In his post, Musk said that he had met with Saudi investors on July 31 of this year. "I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving," he wrote. "This is why I referred to 'funding secured' in the August 7th announcement."
Kathrein, who says he has not been contacted by the company ー nor by Musk ー believes the tweet was intended to drive short sellers like his client to cover their positions.
“To me, he is playing with fire,” said Kathrein, a partner at the law firm Hagens Berman. “That does not justify putting out this tweet that says funding is secured.”
Musk’s contentious relationship with short sellers is both well-documented and publicized. One recent example [took place in June](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1008450201885872129) when he tweeted to his 22 million followers that short sellers have “about three weeks before their short position explodes.”
Chamberlain, who said his short position is made up of about 80 percent common stock short and 20 percent puts, reduced his position as a result of the tweet.
In an interview with Cheddar on Sunday, Chamberlain ー a lawyer who previously practiced with the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness ー said he covered his position because he had to take the tweet seriously.
Musk is the "CEO of a publicly traded company," he said. "I have to hedge against the risk that he has not committed securities fraud. That seems like a reasonable thing to do."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/did-elon-musks-tweet-break-the-law).
Spotify beat fourth quarter earnings expectations, and also reported a jump in monthly active users and in paid subscribers. The report comes as the company grapples with a new question: is it simply a streaming platform, or is it a media company responsible for the content it posts, like Joe Rogan's controversial podcast? Greg Martin, Co-Founder of Rainmaker Securities, joins Closing Bell to discuss why the stock took a hit even though earnings results were positive, how the company can move forward through the Rogan controversy, and more.
Chen Arad, Chief Operating Officer for Solidus Labs, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why Wormhole was particularly vulnerable to a $320+ million crypto hack and discusses what new investors need to do in order to protect their assets.
E-commerce platform for construction and building materials RenoRun has raised $142 million in a Series B round, which the company says is the fourth largest Series B round in Canadian history. RenoRun’s platform offers same-day delivery of construction materials to job sites in Canada and the United States. The company aims to revolutionize the construction industry by maximizing productivity and efficiency. RenoRun co-founder and CEO Eamonn O’Rourke joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Facebook parent company Meta reported weaker-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, and also issued disappointing guidance for Q1 2022. The tech giant is also under pressure due to Apple's iOS privacy change, as well as continued multi-billion dollar losses for its metaverse focused business unit. Angelo Zino, Tech Analyst at CFRA Research, joins Closing Bell to discuss the earnings results, how Apple's iOS privacy change will impact revenue, whether the metaverse is an underrated investment opportunity, and more.
The video game industry has seen monumental growth the past few years - with an increasing amount of companies jumping head first into the space. In January alone, Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard, game publisher Take-Two agreed to buy Zynga, and most recently, Sony announced it has agreed to buy game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion. Tobias Batton, CEO and founder of Ex Populus, joined Cheddar Movers to discuss the surge in M&A activity in the gaming space.
Facebook parent Meta reported disappointing results in its first quarterly earnings report since rebranding to focus on the metaverse. The tech giant delivered mixed results with quarterly profit falling well below Wall Street expectations. Shares plunged more than 20 percent in after hours trading as a result. Martin Garner, COO of CCS Insight, joined Cheddar Movers to break down the company's results.
Super Group, the company behind leading global online sports betting and gaming businesses Betway and Spin, has landed on Wall Street. The company went public via SPAC with Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp., and now lists on the NYSE under the ticker symbol 'SGHC.' This debut comes as the U.S. sports betting market continues to heat up with more and more states legalizing the practice. Eric Grubman, chairman of Super Group, joined Cheddar to discuss.
Miami wants to be the crypto capital of the world. Mayor Francis Suarez has gone all in on the blockchain, even accepting one of his first paychecks in Bitcoin, hosting one of the world's largest digital cryptocurrency conferences, and marketing Miami as a great place for tech experts to work. Maja Vujinovic, managing director of OGroupLLC, joined Cheddar's Fast Forward to discuss Miami's enthusiasm toward crypto, some of the potential risks that entails, and where the city might be heading when it comes to the crypto takeover.
Hinge users who have children can opt-in to a $100 stipend up to $25,000 for childcare. Logan Ury, the director of relationship science for the online dating platform, noted the issue as an obstacle for single parents who want to go out on dates. "We have heard that singles with children have a hard time going on dates for one of the reasons being that it's just hard to find childcare and it's hard to be able to afford it," she said. Ury also said that the hot topic among Hinge's users is mental health and the prioritizing of mental health.
