Musk tweet fund adminstrator not filing statements, judge says

[MILL VALLEY] A judge is questioning the status of a US$40 million fund that was established from fines paid by Elon Musk and Tesla over controversial tweets.

The firm appointed in May to administer distributions from the fund, set up by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for harmed investors, has not filed required accounting statements, US District Judge Alison Nathan said in an order Tuesday (Dec 21). She directed Rust Consulting to submit a status report by Jan 7.

The SEC reached a settlement with Musk and Tesla in September 2018 after suing the billionaire over his tweeted claims weeks earlier that he had the funding and investor support to buy out stockholders at US$420 a share. The SEC alleged the tweets were false, and while Musk and Tesla did not admit to wrongdoing as part of the accord, the agency set up a so-called Fair Fund to repay investors harmed by Musk's statements.

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