New York, USA (CNN) – Elon Musk’s legal team has summoned the head of the Public Investment Fund in Saudi Arabia, Yasser Al-Rumayyan, as part of the litigation over the Tesla CEO’s 2018 tweet and what he said he was considering taking the car company private. And he got funding to do it.
Musk had long maintained that he was considering taking Tesla private at the time he posted the tweet, and said his comment on “secured financing” was based on conversations with Saudi Arabia’s massive sovereign wealth fund, which he said had urged him to take the company. Especially and offered to increase its investment in Tesla. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund invests in entities important to economic growth and says it has $620 billion in assets under management as of early 2022.
Musk’s team is now seeking to have Yasser Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, testify as part of the litigation, according to a subpoena filed in December and filed on Tuesday. Musk’s team has also subpoenaed three other members of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund declined to comment to CNN about the subpoenas.
Tesla shareholders sued Musk in 2018, alleging he didn’t have “secured funding” to take the company private at $420 per share, he said in a tweet that year, which caused wild swings in Tesla shares that investors claimed hurt them. their investment portfolios.
Musk eventually settled with the then US Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweets, resigned as chairman of Tesla and agreed to have his use of social media supervised, though it appeared he had breached the agreement several times.
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