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).
With only two days left until Christmas, last-minute shoppers are facing major issues caused by supply chain shortages and the rising omicron variant. Kristen Gall, president of Rakuten Rewards, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Supply chain issues have become one of the biggest roadblocks for the U.S. EV market, with production woes likely to stunt the industry's growth in 2022. Rich Steinberg, electric vehicle expert and industry advisor, told Cheddar that the Biden administration investing in domestic mining for essential minerals used in battery manufacturing — such as lithium — could help alleviate the bottlenecks. "Some of those same materials are available domestically, they just haven't been prioritized," he said, noting the paradox between green tech and "dirty" mining. "The good news is that there are ways to extract those materials cleanly."
California-based startup Indi EV is gearing up to release its first crossover vehicle incorporating a supercomputer that will allow, among other things, gaming. Andre Hudson, head of design at Indi EV, joined Cheddar to talk about the launch of the Indi One and how the company is distinguishing itself from leaders in the EV space like Tesla. He also talked about the tech behind the Indi One and noted that the car's computer system will enable people to run applications and even create their own. "As a company, we fundamentally saw a major disconnect between how people transition into their cars using the digital devices in their life," Hudson said
Cheddar is looking back at the 12 biggest buzzwords of the year leading up to Christmas. The term for Day 12 is Web3. Definition: (noun) Also known as Web 3.0, a version of the internet where data is decentralized and based on peer-to-peer technologies.
Hyperfine, the pioneer of the very first FDA-approved portable MRI device, made its public debut on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger. CEO Dave Scott joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss the IPO launch, the company's valuation at $580 million, and the impact of its machine called Swoop. "We can roll an MRI system, our MRI Swoop system, right into the room where you are, right up to your patient bedside, and scan you right there and get an image in less than an hour," he explained.
Social media platform TikTok was the most visited website in 2021, topping Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple, according to IT security company Cloudflare.
AdTheorent just the latest company to go public via a SPAC. The company specializes in digital advertising, using AI and machine learning as a tool to move marketing forward. AdTheorent to close its SPAC merger with MCAP Acquisition today and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ADTH. CEO Jim Lawson spoke with Cheddar ahead of the move.
Although still early in development, blockchain technology, Web3, also known as Web 3.0 has been getting a lot of attention from some top tech names lately. Web3 is based on blockchain technology, which powers NFT’s and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. With Web3, users would ideally control their own data, rather than have it be controlled by a few large companies. But, Tesla CEO Elon musk isn't buying into Web3 just yet, tweeting over the weekend that the decentralized iteration of the internet seems more like a marketing "buzzword" right now than reality. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey also chiming in to the conversation, expressing doubt over whether or not Web3 would actually be decentralized if ownership still belonged to venture capital firms. Parker McCurley, co-founder & CEO of Decent Labs explains the significance of Web3 catching the eye of the tech giants, and what Web3 could mean for the future of the internet.
