There’s at least an arguable case that Elon Musk has breached securities laws by announcing various Tesla plans and ideas upon Twitter.
One final note that makes me chuckle. Elon made his big announcement on Twitter. He has also blocked a lot of people on Twitter–including me in 2013 or 2014. Well, selective disclosure of public information–giving it to some people earlier than others–violates Reg FD (“Regulation Fair Disclosure”). So by (a) blocking me (and many others) on , and (b) running his big brain waves through, Twitter, Elon might have committed other securities violations.
Hahahaha.
This is entirely different from whatever might be true of using Twitter rather than EDGAR, or making announcements before deals are fully finalised and so on. Purely, if some are blocked by Musk on Twitter and announcements are made on Twitter then is that selective delivery of the information?
In the WorldCom and Enron scandals, where companies engaged in fraud and self-dealing (but also some mere cheerleading), we were horrified to see George W. Bush jump on the bandwagon and give the final push to the enactment of Sarbanes/Oxley, a crackdown on the innocent with new restrictions on communications from the board-room. Like the “Fairness Doctrine,” these restrictions are most easily complied with by abstinence — leaving shareholders in total darkness except for scheduled quarterly disclosures. Surely, Musk violated these rules. Just as surely, the rules should not exist. Everyone would like to trade in a market where everyone… Read more »
I think it was Jobs who called sarbanes-oxley the biggest bucket of sand thrown into the gears of America’s economy, then promptly backed down and apologised to the SEC
It is a big stick for finance to use to beat other departments into compliance
S-Ox was designed to correct the failures of auditing in uncovering misbehaviour at (in particular) Enron, by creating huge new opportunities for auditors.
In the WorldCom and Enron scandals, where companies engaged in fraud and self-dealing (but also some mere cheerleading), we were horrified to see George W. Bush jump on the bandwagon and give the final push to the enactment of Sarbanes/Oxley, a crackdown on the innocent with new restrictions on communications from the board-room. Like the “Fairness Doctrine,” these restrictions are most easily complied with by abstinence — leaving shareholders in total darkness except for scheduled quarterly disclosures. Surely, Musk violated these rules. Just as surely, the rules should not exist. Everyone would like to trade in a market where everyone… Read more »