People say that when the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) sues you, you are done. That is what happened to Elon Musk, the CEO, Tesla Motors. Well, I did not say it is the end of him. However, being sued for fraud is not a small thing.
Those of us who understand this better know that fraud is not just stealing cash, it can be either misappropriation of assets or massaging of financial statements which misrepresents the financial position of the company and that second one is what he could have done.
How you ask?
Let us look at the basis of the SEC claims, first with the tweets by Elon Musk claiming he will take Tesla Motors private at 420 million dollars and that he has secured the funding to do so. Elon insists that he has not done any wrong and had the evidence of the funding in place. Good thing is that Elon still has the backing of his board.
If Elon were to be barred from leading any company, this would really jeopardize the future of Tesla as he is really intertwined in its governance and strategic direction.