Elon Musk Says Comment that Caused $20 Million SEC Fine Was ‘Worth It’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a recent statement that the tweet he posted which cost him and his company $20 million each in SEC fines was “worth it.”

In September, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reached a settlement with the SEC over charges of fraud relating to a tweet in which Musk claimed to have the “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Musk was offered a no-guilt settlement deal by the SEC. Under the terms of the settlement, both Musk and Tesla paid a $20 million fine to “be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process,” and Musk was barred from acting as the chairman of Tesla for two years — although he would still maintain his role as CEO and he would not have to admit guilt in the matter.

In a recent tweet thread discussing social media, Musk stated that Twitter users rarely gave praise to others but regularly published criticism. One follower replied that Musk had received 19,000 likes on that tweet showing that he received quite a lot of praise on the platform. Musk replied that Instagram was much more likely to provide positive affirmation than Twitter was:

On Insta, 10% of followers like even lame posts. On Twitter, good posts get 1%.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2018

Another user replied to Musk: “How about that one that cost you 20M, how was the ‘like’ ratio on that one?” to which Musk simply replied: “worth it.”

Worth it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2018

In a recent series of interviews with a number of former and current Tesla employees, CNBC reported that Musk is described as an: “ambitious CEO whose drive to make everything from scratch sometimes impaired his decision-making, leading him to approve expensive projects that failed and delayed production.” CNBC also stated that Musk regularly refused to consider using production methods previously used by major automakers and regularly ignored advice from experienced auto industry veterans within Tesla.