I think the SEC gives insiders and C-suite some kind of free pass as long as they don't time their 'overtlyoptimistic' takes on their company with their stock s

I think the SEC gives insiders and C-suite some kind of free pass as long as they don't time their 'overtlyoptimistic' takes on their company with their stock sales or vest. The SEC is giving Musk free reign because they know that he can't leave the company because the two entities are so intertwined. Musk wealth is effectively just paper wealth. The SEC doesn't care that investment bankers consider it real enough to give Musk loans for those pledged shares They also don't care that the cult of personality he managed to create enable him to constantly not produce results and investors still give him money In the end the SEC cares about real cash leaving the company coffins and into the owners pockets , not paper wealth swelling. It's really a M.A.D. game between Musk and the SEC at this point...the SEC is willing to bet that it's not remotely possible that Musk lied through his teeth this whole time just to get to #1 in the paper wealth Forbes list only to implode while at the top. Musk on the other hand doesn't strike me as a cold calculator such as Gates or Brin or Zuck, he is much more impulsive and there are non-zero chances that he did just that.