Elon Musk paid a $20 million fine to rescue Tesla from bankruptcy, a little known fact.

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It’s like putting a gun to your child’s head

The reason for this is that, at the time, Tesla was really in a bad way. “Our finance director told me that the banks would suspend our credit lines immediately. If they had suspended our credit lines at that time, we would have gone bankrupt instantly”, Elon Musk sums up. “There would never have been any possibility of a lawsuit, because Tesla would have died.”

The billionaire’s comments about the SEC are not exactly kind: “It’s like someone holding a gun to your child’s head and asking them to pay $20 million. It’s like a hostage negotiation.”

Originally, the SEC’s complaint targeted a tweet from Elon Musk, which could be interpreted as an announcement that Tesla was going public. The commission believed that the billionaire had sought to mislead investors, but the San Francisco court ruled that the accusations were unfounded. This conclusion explains why the SEC is still on fire with the billionaire, who has decided not to cooperate in the new X-related case.