Musk Reaches Tweets Deal with SEC

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has agreed to have Tesla lawyers preapprove his tweets the discuss any items in a long list of company production, sales and financial targets.

The deal enables Musk to avoid a contempt of court ruling for failing to adhere to a similar but more vaguely worded agreement reached with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last autumn.

The first confrontation with the SEC came when Musk incorrectly claimed last August that he had secured the funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. He and Tesla each ended up paying $20 million in fines. Musk also stepped down as chairman and agreed to have his tweets reviewed on matters pertinent to investors.

In February the SEC sought a contempt charge in a New York City district court, claiming that in a new Musk tweet had significantly overstated the company’s production expectation for this year. The court told the commission the original order was too vague to enforce and admonished the two sides to achieve “absolute clarity” to avoid another round of charges.