There’s more trouble ahead for EV maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. He may be called to testify in the so-called Tesla fraud case. Lawyers are concerned, as losing the case would end up costing the company a substantial chunk of money. Investors seem less concerned, however, as Tesla is up nicely in Friday afternoon trading.
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Musk could be called as early as today as part of the trial. Musk is currently third on a list of possible witnesses. The second on that list is Harvard Law professor Guhan Subramanian, who will detail how a normal management buyout looks. Subramanian will also spell out for jurors how what Musk did was different from that. Musk, meanwhile, will likely detail why he noted that he had funding lined up to take Tesla private from Saudi investors. He will also note whether he knew that his statement was materially misleading.
These kinds of cases seldom reach a court trial. However, reports note that the plaintiffs have already beaten some impressive legal objections just to get to this point. One pretrial ruling told jurors to “assume” that Musk’s tweets were both “false and reckless.” Moreover, the plaintiffs’ attorneys are already suggesting the judge in this case should offer a “cautionary instruction” to disregard any testimony from Musk suggesting that the tweets were true before the trial even begins.
Wall Street, meanwhile, maintains a fairly positive position on Tesla stock. Analyst consensus calls Tesla a Moderate Buy right now. With an average price target of $193.88, Tesla stock has 48.48% upside potential.
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