IT News on November 11: On November 10 local time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had completed the distribution of funds from the equity fund (Fair Fund) established in connection with Musk and Tesla's settlement case in 2018.

SEC The administrators have allocated a total of $41.53 million (Note from IT: the current exchange rate is approximately 278 million RMB) to 3,350 eligible investors. The amount includes interest, and the relevant management fees have been deducted.

According to Reuters, SEC has submitted documents to the Federal Court in Manhattan, New York, requesting the judge to officially close the Fair Fund. The fund was initially established with a size of $40 million, derived from civil fines of $20 million each imposed on Elon Musk and Tesla, and the funds were intended to compensate investors who suffered losses due to related incidents.

This case originated from a tweet posted by Musk on Twitter on August 7, 2018. At that time, he claimed to have "obtained funds" ( funding secured ) and might privatize Tesla.

After Musk posted the related tweets, there were significant fluctuations in Tesla's stock price and trading volume. On that day, the stock price closed up more than 6% from when he first started posting; thereafter, as the financing did not materialize, the stock price fell back.

Subsequently, a civil lawsuit was filed against Musk on charges of securities fraud. The settlement agreement reached in 2018 stipulated that Musk and Tesla would each pay a civil fine of $20 million, and neither party admitted to any misconduct. Musk also agreed to resign from his position as Tesla's chairman and allowed Tesla's lawyers to review some of his Twitter posts in advance.

SEC indicates that since the total amount approved for claims by eligible investors exceeds the distributable funds, each claimant will ultimately receive 51.7% of their approved claim amount. Additionally, 3,046 claim applications were not approved, and the remaining approximately $449,000 from the fund will be turned over to the U.S. Treasury Department.

SEC It should be specifically noted that this fund distribution is unrelated to another lawsuit involving Elon Musk. That lawsuit concerned Musk's acquisition of Twitter shares between March and April 2022, followed by a 11-day delay in disclosing the related shareholding information. Musk settled the case by paying $1.5 million through a personal trust, without acknowledging any wrongdoing.