Elon Musk agrees to step down as chairman of Tesla as part of the settlement with SEC

Elon Musk has finally relented. As part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he has agreed to step down as the chairman of Tesla, the company that he founded. Furthermore, the maverick innovator has also been ordered to pay a whopping $20 million as fines for what can only be termed as violations of regulations and corporate misconduct. Moreover, his company has also been ordered to pay an additional $20 million. However, Musk will continue to serve as the CEO of the famous electric car manufacturer.

These troubles have come in the wake of Musk’s tweets, which were both unethical and in violation of regulations for a publicly traded company. He tweeted on the 7th of August that he had secured funding to take Tesla private. He also indicated that the funding came from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, money from the same fund was later used to invest in another electric car company called Lucid. Musk faced severe backlash from twitterati and netizens for his remarks calling the British rescue divers in Thailand as pedophiles.

His tweets had been a major cause for concern for Tesla’s shareholders. As part of the agreement with the SEC, Musk has also agreed to appoint 2 independent directors to the board of his company and an independent panel to oversee his communications with the media.