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I get that, and my reading of it was Elon didn't have everything covered legally and the SEC had leverage. He did the equivalent of pleading to a lesser charge

by ctvo 5y ago

I get that, and my reading of it was Elon didn't have everything covered legally and the SEC had leverage. He did the equivalent of pleading to a lesser charge vs. fighting it. If the SEC really had nothing, Elon with his army of lawyers, would have been happy to tell them to take a hike. Like a lot of people in these situations, he may have thought he could beat this in court but due to circumstance (like Tesla's shaky financial situation at the time) accepted the deal to make it go away. That's still not blackmailing.

mlindner 4y ago
> If the SEC really had nothing, Elon with his army of lawyers, would have been happy to tell them to take a hike. I think you should listen to the full quote. Musk said that bankers were withholding funding to Tesla when they were having a funding crunch so if Musk had pursued the defense in the lawsuit rather than settling then it would have bankrupted Tesla. Musk WANTED to not settle, but wasn't able to. That's what he's saying. BTW if you note, Musk in general has never settled basically any lawsuit he's ever been engaged in besides this one. He always fights until the end win or lose.