Citron Research’s Andrew Left is Suing Tesla Over This

Andrew Left, the man behind notable newsletter Citron Research, has announced that he is suing electric vehicle maker Tesla.

Left is suing the company and its CEO Elon Musk for violating federal securities laws. He has alleged that Musk manipulated the price of Tesla’s stock price by issuing materially false and misleading information.

A copy of the lawsuit had been posted online and confirmed as authentic by Left this week.

The suit cites Musk’s Aug. 7 tweet about taking Tesla private and saying that he had secured funding. Shortly after the tweet, Wall Street was brewing with comments and concerns about whether funding really was secured for the proposal.

It was on August 24th that Musk released a blog post that said he had changed his mind and that the company would stay public.

“This appears to be a textbook case of fraud,” Labaton Sucharow partner Michael Canty, one of Left’s law firms, said in the release. “We believe Musk attempted to manipulate the price of Tesla securities with false and misleading tweets, in a directed effort to harm short-sellers.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and have not been compensated for this article.