Thousands of investors who lost money when Elon Musk infamously tweeted about taking Tesla private in 2018 will start to receive compensation from his settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
After the incident, Musk reached a settlement with the SEC that saw him fined $20 million and Tesla itself fined $20 million. That money was then pooled together into a ‘fair fund’ and has since grown to $42.3 million with interest payments. A court filing recently made by the SEC has confirmed that 3,350 eligible claimants with soon receive payouts totaling $41.53 million, helping them to recoup 51.7% of their losses.
Read: Elon Musk Loses In Bid To Get SEC To Scrap 2018 Agreement
Reuters notes that the remaining money will be held back for fees, taxes, and expenses. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman from Manhattan is planning to approve the payouts by September 1, as long as no one objects to them.
Musk has remained in fierce opposition to the SEC ever since his settlement. In addition to being fined, Musk must have his tweets reviewed if they contain any material information about Tesla. Lawyers for the world’s richest man have claimed this stipulation mandates a “government-imposed muzzle” that restricts his free speech and attempted to have it thrown out in the courts last year. The bid failed and earlier this year, a three-judge appeals court panel also rejected Musk’s attempts to have the ‘muzzle’ removed.
The SEC is also investigating Elon Musk for the statements that he and Tesla have made about the abilities of its Autopilot advanced driving assistance system. This investigation was opened shortly after the director of Tesla’s Autopilot program admitted in court that Musk oversaw a video that was staged and appeared to show a Model S driving without driver intervention. Internal emails revealed that Musk acknowledged it was fine to fake the video since it showed something the car would be able to do in the future.
