Elon Musk is buying $20 million more of Tesla shares – seemingly to compensate for SEC settlement fine

Tesla disclosed today that Elon Musk is buying $20 million more worth of TSLA shares directly from the company.

The move comes as Tesla is required to pay $20 million as a fine for Musk’s settlement with the SEC over his comments about taking Tesla private.

Today, Tesla filed with the SEC the confirmation of the settlement after it was approved by a Judge earlier this week.

In the document, they confirm that “Tesla and Elon will each pay a civil penalty of $20 million.”

They also added to the same document:

“Separate and apart from the settlement, Elon has notified Tesla that he intends to purchase from Tesla, and Tesla expects that it will issue and sell to Elon, $20 million of Tesla’s common stock during the next open trading window at the then-current market price.”

Tesla states that Musk plans to purchase the shares directly from the company instead of on the public market.

In the document, Tesla says that Musk will resign as Chairman of the Board within 45 days.

The company will also appoint two additional independent directors to the Board and put in place more oversight for Musk’s communication that could affect investors within 90 days.

Electrek’s Take

The timing makes it seem like Musk wants to cover the cost of Tesla’s part of the SEC fine for his comments.

That’s not exactly the case since Musk is clearly getting stocks in return, but the timing and the amount seem to represent Musk’s best intentions to try to cover the cost for Tesla.

I don’t know if there are regulations preventing Musk from directly paying the fine for Tesla and therefore, that’s the best he could do.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.