Tesla and its chief executive Elon Musk accused the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of improperly targeting them in a “relentless” investigation aimed at punishing Musk for being an explicit critic of the government. In the letter addressed to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, who presided over the 2018 settlement with the SEC stemming from Musk’s tweet that he secured funding to potentially make Tesla private, the SEC is accused of “chilling” Musk’s right to free speech. “The SEC appears to be targeting Mr. Musk and Tesla for relentless investigations mainly because Mr. Musk remains an outspoken critic of the government; the SEC’s inordinate efforts seem calculated to cool down its exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce regulations. laws that are generally applied fairly, “wrote Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk and Tesla. “When too much is too much.”
“The SEC broke its promises,” Musk’s lawyer wrote, adding that the agency “armed the consent decree by using it to try to muzzle and harass Mr. Musk and Tesla.” it would not yet distribute $ 40 million to shareholders as agreed.