Canada Global (Web News) Elon Musk, the CEO of the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles, Tesla, will go on trial on Tuesday for allegedly using a tweet to manipulate the stock market, after a federal judge denied his request to have the case moved out of California.
The dispute began in August 2018 when Musk tweeted that he had enough money to take Tesla private, sparking a wild rise in the stock price of the business.
Musk was immediately sued by the company’s shareholders for allegedly costing them billions of dollars after tweeting that funding was “secured” to buy out the company’s stockholders.
Judge Edward Chen reportedly refused on Friday moving the case to Texas, where Musk moved Tesla’s corporate headquarters and jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
The multibillionaire, who acquired Twitter in late October and has drawn heavy criticism for his actions since assuming control of the social media company, was represented by defence attorneys who claimed that he would not receive a fair trial in San Francisco.
Musk drastically altered the site’s content moderation procedures after assuming control of Twitter, firing more than half of the 7,500 employees, the most of whom were based in San Francisco.
The lawyers claimed that the local media had blamed Mr. Musk directly for the reductions and even accused him of breaking the law, which was a departure from how they generally covered similar topics.
Bloomberg reports that during the hearing, Judge Chen expressed confidence in the ability to select fair jurors.
Authorities have already taken notice of Musk’s brief tweet from 2018.
