Musk's "funding secured" tweet was incredibly irresponsible. Subsequent elaborations by Musk himself showed he had what amounts to an initial expression of interest, at most.<p>His tweet seems like, at best, an impulsive, irresponsible action. At worst, it's an emotional attempt to fend off, possibly even directly harm his many critics and short-sellers.<p>This doesn't look good for him.
What are the possible repercussions of an SEC investigation? Are they significant?<p>Assuming for a second that this was just gamesmanship, it could be a great strategy.<p>Many short sellers get their shorts cancelled due to their stops and lose a lot of money. These short sellers (and others) will think twice about shorting Tesla again and may move on to easier targets.<p>It could be that all Mr. Musk needs to do is create a plausible story that he believed the funding was actually secured. If he can afford to defend the lawsuits in court and afford the SEC penalties, this could be a big long term win for the Tesla stock price.