After Tesla disclosed its subpoena from a U.S. regulator earlier this month, the automaker says its head and company are being harassed by a U.S. regulator.
Tesla sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday saying that U.S. regulatory authorities are harassing company head Elon Musk following a subpoena about a 2018 tweet from Musk, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The letter from Tesla’s attorneys says the SEC is currently operating “unfounded investigations” of both Musk and Tesla as a whole.
Tesla’s attorneys also said that the regulator never paid out an over $40 million fine from a 2018 settlement to involved shareholders.
Lucid Motors Receives Subpoena From the SEC, Shares Fall https://t.co/2sJum5HAI4
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) December 6, 2021
Attorneys filed the letter on Thursday with a federal judge who oversaw the settlement.
In the letter, partner at New York-based law firm Quinn Emanuel and Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said, “The SEC seems to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for unrelenting investigation largely because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government.” Spiro continued, “The SEC’s outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights.”
Tesla also faces a separate SEC investigation over fire risk potential with the company’s solar panels, discovered in a letter from a whistleblower and former Tesla employee.
