A jury deliberated for about an hour, then found Tesla CEO Elon Musk is \u201cnot liable\u201d for losses incurred by investors who accused him of fraud based on his tweets in August 2018 that he was thinking of taking the company private, adding \u201cfunding secured,\u201d according to reports from The New York Times<\/em><\/a> and CNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The deliberation was exceptionally quick. While cases can be difficult to compare directly, juries took days to deliberate on verdicts for Elizabeth Holmes<\/a> and Martin Shkreli<\/a>, both of whom were on trial for fraud. The decision for Musk took a fraction of that time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With Musk in attendance, the jury in the billionaire\u2019s securities fraud trial heard closing arguments from an attorney representing a class of Tesla investors who claim they suffered big losses as a result of Musk\u2019s tweet. They also heard from Musk\u2019s lawyers, who claimed all he was guilty of was \u201cpoor word choice.\u201d Their decision allows Musk to walk away unscathed rather than pay out billions of dollars of damages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For weeks, the jury has heard a litany of witnesses \u2014 including Musk himself \u2014 recount the events leading up to and following the August 7th, 2018, tweet. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk claimed that meetings with Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund left him convinced that he would have the funding to take Tesla private. But within weeks, Musk had abandoned the deal, leaving some Tesla investors billions of dollars in the hole. But even before they heard any witnesses, District Court Judge Edward Chen instructed the jury that they should consider Musk\u2019s tweet false, leaving them to decide whether Musk knowingly deceived shareholders, causing them to lose money. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Musk previously agreed to a\u00a0$40 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission<\/a>\u00a0over the tweet, which required him to relinquish his position as chair of the company but not admit to any wrongdoing. (Musk has since argued that he was coerced into the settlement.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In his closing argument, plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Nicholas Porritt said Musk needs to be held accountable for tweets that were already ruled to be false. \u201cThis case ultimately is about whether the rules that apply to everyone else should also apply to Elon Musk,\u201d Porritt argued. \u201cBillionaires don\u2019t get to operate under a different set of rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Porritt walked the jury through the testimony of the Tesla investors who brought the lawsuit as well as various expert witnesses who presented data that he said showed how fluctuations in the stock price in and around the August 7th tweet led them to lose money. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cElon Musk published tweets that were false, with reckless disregard for the truth,\u201d Porritt said. \u201cAnd those tweets caused investors harm, lots of harm. That is all that is necessary to find liability here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust because it\u2019s a bad tweet doesn\u2019t make it fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Investment banking witnesses previously testified that days after the tweet, they were still trying to determine how the deal would be structured. Musk had testified that, even without the Saudi money, he believed he could take Tesla private with his own wealth, including his stake in his private space company SpaceX, as the foundation of the deal. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Porritt said that Musk\u2019s tweet was \u201ca lie,\u201d proven by text messages between the Tesla CEO and Yasir Al-Rumayyan<\/a>, the governor of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund. Musk tried to bully the Saudi official, threatening to cut him off unless he publicly affirmed the take-private deal, the attorney said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBillionaires don\u2019t get to operate under a different set of rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Tesla should also be held liable, he argued, because of the conscious decision to allow Musk and his Twitter feed to serve as the primary source of corporate communication. \u201cTesla consciously chose to make Elon its public image,\u201d Porritt said, \u201cand specifically his Twitter feed as the primary news and information [source].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In comparison, Spiro\u2019s closing argument was sprawling and difficult to follow at times, making several references to Musk as a \u201ckid in a witness stand\u201d or a \u201ckid from South Africa.\u201d (Musk is 51 years old.) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spiro\u2019s core argument rested on convincing the jury to believe that Musk tweeted \u201cfunding secured\u201d because he sincerely believed he would have \u201cample funding\u201d to take Tesla private. The tweet was \u201ctechnically inaccurate,\u201d Spiro acknowledged, but not fraud. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust because it\u2019s a bad tweet doesn\u2019t make it fraud,\u201d Spiro said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cElon Musk published tweets that were false, with reckless disregard for the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think I heard [Porritt] say that you should assume Elon Musk committed fraud. Well, he didn\u2019t. Not even close,\u201d Spiro said. \u201cElon Musk was considering taking Tesla private, and he could have. Funding was not an issue, that is the fundamental truth, which will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Holding Musk liable for Tesla\u2019s stock fluctuations would represent a fundamental misunderstanding of how the market works, Spiro argued. \u201cStocks move all the time for lots of reasons,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to punish Musk for using two words, but they move all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spiro told jurors that they don\u2019t have to like Musk or his tweets to determine that the lawsuit lacks merit. \u201cSome of his tweets, I don\u2019t like either,\u201d Spiro concluded. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Before the lawyers began their presentations, Musk laughed<\/a> at a joke made by Chen about whether it\u2019s \u201cmetaphysically possible\u201d for plaintiffs to prove a \u201cmaterial misrepresentation.\u201d He also apparently offered his assistance<\/a> when the court was experiencing IT problems. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But minutes before the jury was seated, Musk was not thinking about his own fate or the outcome of the case. He was tweeting about Twitter<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Update February 3rd, 6:40PM ET:<\/strong> Updated to reflect the jury\u2019s ruling and <\/em>tweet<\/em><\/a> from Elon Musk.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n