Tesla receives subpoena from SEC over 2018 settlement

Feb 7 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) said on Monday it received a subpoena from the U.S. securities regulator in November related to the SEC settlement that required top boss Elon Musk’s tweets on material information to be vetted.

The disclosure in an annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comes after Musk triggered a stock sell-off after asking his Twitter followers in November if he should sell 10% of his stake in the company.

As of last close, the electric-car maker’s shares fell by nearly a fourth since the tweet.

Tesla in December was hit by a lawsuit over Musk’s social media posts including his Twitter poll on stock sales that pulled down its stock prices.

In 2018, Musk settled a lawsuit by the SEC over his tweet on taking the company private, agreeing to have the company’s lawyers pre-approve tweets with material information about the company.

BITCOIN HOLDINGS WORTH $2 BLN

Tesla said on Monday the fair market value of the electric-vehicle maker’s bitcoin holdings as of Dec. 31 was $1.99 billion.

The company, which had invested $1.50 billion in bitcoin last year, said it registered about $101 million in impairment losses last year due to the value of bitcoin.

A drop in the value of bitcoin resulted in the company recording losses, as the value of its holdings fell.

Tesla had also briefly accepted the cryptocurrency as payment for sales of certain products. However, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk stopped accepting the digital currency, citing environmental concerns around the mining of bitcoin.

The company said it gained $128 million on sales of bitcoin after selling a portion of its holdings in March. Tesla has not disclosed any change to its bitcoin holdings since.

Reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta

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