Another Delay in Musk-SEC Contempt Settlement

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have asked for a second extension of their talks to avoid an SEC-requested contempt of court ruling over Musk’s impulsive use of Twitter.

The presiding federal judge in New York City urged the two sides to see to settle their dispute themselves by April 18. The parties later requested an extension to April 25. Yesterday, they secured a delay to April 30.

Musk and the SEC have been sparing since October. It began when Musk inaccurately tweeted that he might take the company private at $420 per share and has secured the funding to do so. The SEC charged him with misleading investors.

To settle the claim, Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million fines. Musk also agreed to have his tweets reviewed by a company panel. But in February he inaccurately predicted the company would make 500,000 electric cars this year, later claiming he meant to say the company hopes to reaching an annualized production rate of 500,000 units by the end of the year.

The SEC promptly asked the judge to find him in contempt. Musk hasn’t helped his case by acknowledging that none of his tweets has been screened since the October settlement.