Tesla Shares Plummet as Musk Insults the SEC

Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla were in the red again on Friday as traders embraced more shenanigans from the company’s CEO Elon Musk as well as bearish remarks from hedge fund manager David Einhorn who is short on the stock.

It was earlier in the week that the eccentric executive tweeted an insult aimed at the Securities Exchange Committee (SEC), referring to them as the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission.” His tweet came just hours after a judge handling his settlement agreement with the SEC ordered both parties to explain why the court should approve it.

Former SEC chair Harvey Pitt has called Musk’s tweets, “precipitous, mercurial, and dangerous.”
It was days ago that he reached a settlement with the SEC for $20 million and agreed to step down as chairman of the company for at least three years. Musk had been alleged of fraud by the commission over his tweet about taking the company private and having funding secured.

On Friday afternoon, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital wrote a third quarter letter to investors in which he compared Tesla to the now defunct Lehman Brothers. According to Einhorn, “Like Lehman, we think the deception is about to catch up to TSLA.”

Einhorn believes that Musk is behaving as crazy as he is because he actually wants to be fired. The hedge fund manager thinks that Musk knows he cannot keep up with the promises that he made and realizes that he cannot make Tesla vehicles without losing money.

Einhorn says that Musk is unable to produce cars at the speed and cost he had aimed for. He also remarked on Musk’s other renewable energy company SolarCity and how there are yet to be many roofing tiles on the market.

In more positive news, Musk announced on Friday morning via Twitter that Tesla is releasing the ninth version of Autopilot, its automated driver assistance system but would be not releasing a feature that would have let the system guide the car on and off the highway.

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