Elon Musk sold nearly $3.6B worth of Tesla shares before the company said it ... trends now

Elon Musk sold nearly $3.6B worth of Tesla shares before the company said it ... trends now
Elon Musk sold nearly $3.6B worth of Tesla shares before the company said it ... trends now

Elon Musk sold nearly $3.6B worth of Tesla shares before the company said it ... trends now

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold almost $3.6 billion worth of stock just three weeks before the electric car company announced it had missed its delivery targets. 

Musk had offset nearly 22 million of his 426 million shares between December 12 and 14, 2022, as Tesla was projected to be one of the worst performing stocks of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

While the end of the 2022 saw a small rebound for the company's shares, the stocks plummeted even further when the market opened on January 3 following the company's announcement that delivery targets fell short by nearly 22,000 cars.

Given the timing of the deal, Donald Langevoort, another securities law professor at Georgetown University, called for greater transparency. 

'Is it suspicious? Yes. Is it entirely possible there are other explanations? Of course,' Langevoort told the WSJ. 'But that's what the enforcement process is all about.' 

Experts are calling for greater transparency on why Elon Musk (pictured) sold off 22 million shares just weeks before disappointing sales numbers were made public

Experts are calling for greater transparency on why Elon Musk (pictured) sold off 22 million shares just weeks before disappointing sales numbers were made public 

Tesla's stock has been on the rebound following a disastrous start of the year, with shares up 3.11 percent on Friday

Tesla's stock has been on the rebound following a disastrous start of the year, with shares up 3.11 percent on Friday 

Along with the shares sold in December, Musk has sold more than $39 billion worth of stock since its peak back in November 2021, the majority of which was used to fund his $44 billion Twitter takeover. 

Even after all the sales, Musk still owns 426.6 million shares of Tesla, giving him a 13.4 percent ownership position in his company.   

The recent sales in December added up to more than a third of the shares he sold in 2022, with the timing raising questions about insider trading. 

Insider trading refers to the illegal practice of trading shares through confidential information. In Musk's case, it would be selling off 22 million shares while knowing about the disappointing sales numbers before it was public knowledge.  

'The issue here is, what did he know

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