Marc Leaf Featured on Bloomberg TV Discussing Elon Musk’s SEC Contempt Hearing
New York Corporate and Securities partner Marc Leaf was a featured guest on the Bloomberg TV show What’d You Miss?, where he took part in a segment entitled “The Takeaways From Musk’s SEC Contempt Hearing.”
Regarding whether or not Elon Musk should be held in contempt, Marc said, “I think the key issue here is going to be the policies and procedures that Tesla is willing to put into place and whether they can get buy-in from Musk. The fact that Musk was at the hearing today was a good sign. It shows he’s taking this very seriously. If he and Tesla can agree to report on a regular basis that they are, in fact, complying with the order, I think the judge will be satisfied and see that as compliance.”
When asked if the SEC will place any limitations on Musk’s role at Tesla, Marc said, “I don’t think there’s going to be any limitation on his role at Tesla. Nobody wants to see investors hurt by this. Musk, for all of his charms as a tweeter, brings a lot more to the table than he does through social media. He’s going to be the CEO of Tesla, and investors can rely on that.”
In response to a question about weak sales in Q1 2019 having any bearing on Musk’s tweets and if they violated the agreement, Marc responded, “If the sales are demand-based and price-based, then I don’t think they bear on the question of whether his tweets were material. But remember, the issue with the more recent tweets by Musk were not just that they were false. The real issue is that he didn’t comply with the pre-approval process. There are very few CEOs I know who like having their moves checked by other people. He’s going to have to get used to it in this one area.”
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