Over the past year, there's been quite a bit of development with retail trading and a lot of it i would say kind of comes back to what is the sec doing. Are they really fighting for us? Are they truly in our corner? Aren't they and as people go through it? Obviously, there is, for obvious reasons, a myriad of different opinions on it and there's a lot of people with hot takes, and for me i mean i i want them obviously to do more clearly who wouldn't, but i also understand that the the wheels of justice they Do turn slowly and i think it's very easy for us to get into our own world here of like okay, what's the sec doing and like, are they looking into manipulative training? Are they looking into um, manipulative shorting, and the list goes obviously on and on? So i think it's kind of interesting when you kind of come across a story that opens your eyes to like hey, they're, actually doing quite a bit more like they have quite a bit on their plate, and it does seem from a different world, not necessarily shorting. But it seems like there's a new player who is about to hit the mat and fight with the sec. So when i came across this, i just wanted to share with all of you, because it seems like one of the world's most powerful people and the world's actual most rich person is about to get down and dirty with the sec.

This is exactly what i'm talking about. Tesla's ceo musk accuses the sec of calculated effort to chill his right to free speech. Tesla ceo elon, musk, very powerful person. The world's richest person accuses the sec of harassing the executive in a calculated effort to chill his right to free speech in the agency's 2018 settlement agreement that oversees his communications with shareholders.

So i will be getting into exactly what happened in 2018, but just very quickly. Just to get the final aspect of this out of what his lawyer is actually saying, the sec seems to be targeting mr musk and tesla for unrelenting investigation, largely because mr musk remains an outspoken critic of the government. You know just off that line alone. We know elon musk is one of the people on this planet that really knows how to use social media.

They use it in my opinion, in a comical way, but also according to the sec. In a way, that's uh, apparently not completely above board uh. Just to give you a little bit of a recap here, um before we got to the end of 2021, he was really fighting with certain people, and these are just two, but the list does go on and on so right here they were talking about elon musk Named times person of the year and then elizabeth warren, let's change the rigged tax code, so the person of the year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off of everyone else. Um.

Well, he swiftly hit back, and if you opened your eyes for two seconds, you would realize i paid the most taxes than any american in history this year, so kind of just like, like really clapping back, don't spend it all at once. Oh wait. You already did so that was his quick little fight with elizabeth warren uh bernie sanders. We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay its fair share period and then he said i keep forgetting that you're alive.

That was a pretty harsh clapback and then, on top of that he was fighting with the chairman of the senate finance committee, uh, something that i don't even know because of tos, if i could share, but he was definitely in the paint going hard against high level Government officials, the sec's outsized effort, seems calculated to chill his exercise of the first amendment rights rather than to enforce generally applicable laws in even-handed fashion, so could be a fair argument of like is this freedom of speech? Is it not so here i just wanted to share what actually went down in 2018 if you just haven't heard of it before elon musk settles sec fraud, charges, tesla charge with and resolves securities law charge settlement requires must to step down, as tesla's chairman tesla, to Appoint additional independent directors, tesla and musk agreed to pay 40 million in penalties. That sounds like a lot and it's definitely a lot, but it's actually not a lot to someone who's worth clearly in excess of a hundred billion, but anyway this was back in 2018. So he wasn't at that point. The world's richest man, according to the sec's complaint against musk, he tweeted on august 7th 2018 that he could take tesla private at 420 this year.

This was actually before various stock splits, so it would have been. You can't look at 420 of where we are right. Now a substantial premium to its trading price at the time that funding for the transaction has been secured and that only remaining uncertainty was a shareholder vote. This tweet is what first got him in deep water, musk will and the charges on top of the 40 mil were this musk will step down as tesla chairman and had to be replaced by an independent chairman must will be ineligible to be re-elected for chairman for Three years, tess will will appoint a total of two new independent directors to its board.

Tesla will establish a new committee of independent directors and put in place additional controls and procedures to oversee musk communications that one that i just read is kind of funny. His lawyer apparently has to like anything related to tesla and the shareholders. Apparently a lawyer has to read it beforehand, which is about to get interesting because of some of the things that he said in november and musk and tesla will each pay a separate 20 million. The 40 million in penalties will be distributed to harmed investors under a court approved process.

So that's what went down in 2018 and since then, there's been a whole host of other things. Where he's really been needling the sec to us, it's comical to the sec. It obviously pisses him off and the most recent one was this much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so i propose selling 10 of my tesla stock. Do you support this 58 said? Yes, this happened in early november of 2021 and by november 16th, the sec subpoena tesla, just 10 days after elon musk's twitter poll, asking whether he should sell a chunk of his stock.

So this was the newest one and really anything he does with tesla with shareholders. The sec is going to be looking into it. It does at a certain point, i'm i'm no lawyer, i don't know what is a aboveboard below board in term of legally speak, but it does seem like anything he does related to tesla and his shareholders. The sec within a apparently a week and a half jumps on them all over it and now they're, officially filing saying hey.

This is actually against my freedom of speech, and this led recently at least this one about the 10. We know now by some of the most recent developments he now owns over 21 of the company. His personal equity within tesla has actually gone up through this whole ordeal, and we also know that he donated about 5 billion billion with a b dollars worth of tesla to charity when all this went down. So it's kind of a crazy, very fluid situation.

But i just wanted to share it with you, because i know with us when we're talking about the sec, it's easy to get our own blinders on and be like. Okay, sec, look at manipulative shorting when, in reality, they're, obviously tasked with doing so much more and in a different. I guess aspect it does seem like we have another person who, like i said a little bit earlier, is going to the mat with the sec. So with all that being said, i'd love to know and get your thoughts.

Do you think that elon musk is like? I guess, are you on his side in this particular case, or are you on the sec side? Do you think he's doing something inappropriate? That is not quote, unquote legal or do you think his freedom? His first amendment right, his freedom of speech is actually kind of being infringed upon, but let me know in a comment below you:.