In the past two years, Elon Musk has published two tweets that have violated an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
In 2018, Musk agreed to have Tesla lawyers pre-approve certain social media posts. Some of the topics that Musk needs permission to tweet about include the company’s financial condition, production numbers, new business lines, and information meant for shareholders.
That agreement was reached after Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private. The tweet led to a cascade of legal troubles for the company, and the SEC ended up charging Musk with fraud and requiring him to give up his role as chairman of the Tesla board.
In the time since the settlement was inked, the Journal reported that the SEC has notified Tesla that two of Musk’s tweets weren’t cleared by the company’s lawyers. The tweets that slipped through unapproved included one from 2019 regarding Tesla’s solar roof production volumes and one from 2020 about the company’s stock price.
The Journal said it reviewed letters from the SEC in which the agency told Tesla that it had failed "to enforce these procedures and controls despite repeated violations by Mr. Musk" and that Tesla had "abdicated the duties" required by the order.
At this time, it’s not clear whether the financial regulators will take action against Tesla or Musk in order to hold him to the terms of the settlement.