Elon Musk and Tesla to begin trial for alleged fraud over ‘funding secured’ tweet

Lawsuit seeks damages for shareholders who bought or sold Tesla stock in the days after Musk’s August 2018 tweets

Elon Musk and Tesla are set to go to trial in San Francisco on Tuesday in a case in which the company’s shareholders claim they were defrauded by Musk’s 2018 statement that funding was “secured” to take the electric car maker private.

The lawsuit seeks damages for shareholders who bought or sold Tesla stock in the days after Musk’s tweets on 7 August 2018. The company’s shares shot higher and then fell again after 17 August 2018, when the New York Times reported that funding for the take-private bid was “far from secure”.