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Musk Keeps Testing the Limits That the SEC Put on His Tweeting

Earlier this month, Musk trolled the SEC by calling it the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission”.

Musk Keeps Testing the Limits That the SEC Put on His Tweeting
Elon Musk, chairman and CEO, Tesla Motors Inc. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk continues to flirt with trouble on Twitter.

The chief executive officer posted on Monday that he had deleted all references to the titles he held at Tesla, then joked that in doing so, he may have confused “the authorities.”

The posts were not-so-subtle jabs at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued Musk last month over tweets he sent about trying to take Tesla private. The billionaire agreed to pay a $20 million penalty and relinquish the role of chairman as part of a settlement. Tesla also assented to setting up controls to oversee Musk’s social media posts regarding the company.

The settlement hasn’t stopped Musk, 47, from repeatedly needling the SEC. Late Friday, he said an unspecified tweet that cost him $20 million was “worth it.” While the agency actually took issue with several of Musk’s posts in its lawsuit, an initial missive in which he claimed to have secured the funding for a Tesla buyout was perhaps the most notorious one.

Earlier this month, Musk trolled the SEC by calling it the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” and mockingly wrote that it was “doing incredible work.” He then ranted about short selling over the course of more than 20 hours, calling for it to be banned.

On Oct. 16, a U.S. judge signed off on the SEC settlement, after Tesla, Musk and the regulator said in a joint filing that the deal was in the best interest of investors.

Tesla slipped in after-hours trading Monday following Musk’s tweets, falling as much as 1.3 percent to $330.60. The shares are up about 7.6 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zoya Khan in New York at zkhan79@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Clementine Fletcher at cfletcher5@bloomberg.net, ;Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Rita Devlin Marier, Melinda Grenier

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