After announcing that it has filed fraud charges against Musk for posting allegedly false and misleading tweets suggesting the Tesla CEO received funding to take his company private, the SEC held a news conference to discuss the charges further. And that’s where things took an unexpected turn, reports CNBC. During the news conference, Steven Peikin, codirector of enforcement at the SEC, said:
“We allege that Musk had arrived at the price of $420 by assuming a 20 percent premium of what Tesla’s then existing share price (was), and then rounding up to $420 because of the significance of that number in marijuana culture, and his belief that his girlfriend would be amused by it.”
While it’s unclear why the SEC believes that, Musk is definitely a fan of pot. We also assume the “girlfriend” the SEC codirector referred to is Grimes. While Tesla issued a short statement earlier about the SEC allegations, it has not commented on the supposed $420 stock price plot. We’ve reached out to Tesla for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
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