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).
The future of gambling in Florida recently suffered a major setback after a federal appeals court rejected a request from the state and the Seminole Tribe to allow online sports betting in the state. Now, the tribe has been forced to stop taking bets on its Hard Rock sportsbook app. ESPN gaming writer David Purdum joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the future of sports betting in Florida.
Lance Ippolito, Head Trader at the Future Of Wealth, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell where he discusses the factors that have contributed to the recent slide of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.
Web3 software startup Thirdweb has raised $5 million in a funding round, coming from a group of high-profile investors, including Gary Vaynerchuk and Mark Cuban. Thirdweb says it is paving the way for the revolution surrounding the new iteration of the internet known as web3, by offering users free tools to build their own web3 projects. Thirdweb's co-founders Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan join Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Decentralized talent network Braintrust recently closed an atypical equity deal that involved investors buying $100 million in Braintrust tokens, the company's cryptocurrency. Braintrust's talent network is built on blockchain technology, which the company says allows it to be owned and built by users, instead of a centrally-controlled corporation. Braintrust users can also earn tokens for their contributions to the network and its growth. Braintrust co-founder Adam Jackson joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Blue Origin launched its third manned mission over the weekend with 'Good Morning America' host Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard on board, alongside several Blue Origin investors.
This comes after the spaceflight firm launched two successful missions to the edge of space earlier this year. How will these missions set up Blue Origin for success as it competes with SpaceX and other companies for space tourism domination and more? Joey Roulette, space reporter at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Editorial and stock photo provider Getty Images is gearing up to make its public debut via a SPAC merger with CC Neuberger Principal Holdings II bringing it to a $4.8 billion valuation. CEO Craig Peters joined Cheddar to break down the decision to go public and noted that the merger will help to pay down debt. "That's going to really enable a lot of additional free cash flow and financial flexibility into the business," he noted. "That's just going to allow us to just invest more aggressively into the business to accelerate what is already accelerating growth." Peters also discussed the legacy image platform's place going forward in the expanding world of digital assets like NFTs and the metaverse.
Headspace Health has just launched the 'Headspace for Teens' social impact initiative, which will offer free access to the Headspace app for all teens ages 13 - 18 in America. Alice Nathoo, head of social impact at Headspace joins Cheddar News to talk about the program.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to talk about Visa's commitment and the partnerships the company has established to make crypto a conventional form of currency. He noted that banks are becoming more receptive to digital currency as their customers move portions of money to crypto platforms and also explained steps Visa is taking to make them more climate conscious.
Boxed, an e-commerce grocery platform that sells bulk consumables to businesses and household customers, began trading under the ticket symbol "BOXD" after completing a transaction with SPAC Seven Oaks Acquisition. Chieh Huang, co-founder and CEO of Boxed joins Cheddar News to talk about the company's growth.
