SEC Regulations and Tesla's Legal Challenges

Well, the first part, uh, I did actually have the funding secured,

um, and there

was a, a, a big trial in San Francisco, a big civil trial.

Mm-hmm.

Um,

w- uh,

and the, the jury found me not guilty.

Unanimous

finding of a San Francisco jury.

And here it's kind of implying that it was not in fact secured.

I think this is taking things from the press. Um, yeah, that is not correct.

The, the, the reason, um, I agreed to, to the fine for the SEC is

not because the SEC was correct. They were...

Th- that was extremely bad behavior by the

SEC. Corruption, frankly.

Um, and, uh,

but, but if, um,

if I did not agree to pay, pay the fine, um, Tesla would've gone

bankrupt immediately. So I was told by our CFO that, uh,

the banks would sus-

would, would immediately suspend our, uh, lines of credit.

Mm.

Uh, and if they suspend our lines of credit at

that time, we would've gone bankrupt

instantly.

So, so we would've... There would never have been an opportunity

for a trial

because Tesla would be dead. So really the, the, if, if...

This is like someone holding a gun to your kid's head and saying, "Pay $20 million

and, and, and admit to..." This is like a hostage negotiation.

Um-

Was that story

fully told?

I mean, SEC in its best form could be a, a force for good.

It should be, but, but not once did the SEC go after any of

the hedge funds,

uh, who were nonstop shorting and distorting Tesla.

Not once.

They would lie flat, the he- hedge funds would lie flat out on TV for

their

own gain at the expense of retail investors.

Not once, literally a thousand times,

not once did the SEC pursue them.

How do you explain this failure on the SEC?

The incentive structure is, is messed up because the, the,

the lawyers at

the SEC are not paid well. They,

they... It's a fairly low-paying job.

But they're, what they're looking for is a trophy from,

from the SEC. They, they're looking for something they put on

basically their

LinkedIn.

Yeah.

Um, from that they can get a job at a

high-paying law firm.

That's exactly what the, uh,

lawyer h- here did.

Um,

and, a- and, and, and the, and the reason they don't attack the,

the hedge funds is

because those hedge funds employ those law firms,

and they know if they attack the hedge funds, they're affecting their pu- their

future career prospects. So they sell small investors down the

river

for their own career.

That's what actually happens.

Regulatory capture.

Regulatory capture.

Yeah. Not good