--- title: "Elon Musk Ditched Tesla Stock Right Before Bad News Dropped" description: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold almost $3.6 billion of his Tesla shares — just before the company revealed disappointing fourth-quarter results to investors." date: "2023-01-20" modified: "2023-01-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-ditched-tesla-stock-right-before-bad-news-dropped" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "sec" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Ditched Tesla Stock Right Before Bad News Dropped ![Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold almost $3.6 billion of his Tesla shares — just before the company revealed disappointing fourth-quarter results to investors.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Convenient Timing Tesla CEO Elon Musk [sold almost $3.6 billion]() of his shares in the EV maker in December — just before the company revealed disappointing fourth-quarter results to investors, [*The Wall Street Journal* reports](). It has to make you wonder: did Musk know the company's stock price was about to tank, something that could be of interest to financial regulatory authorites? "This should be of great interest to the \[Securities and Exchange Commission\]," James Cox, a securities-law professor at Duke University, told the *WSJ*. "The issue here is, what did he know and what was the market anticipating when he sold? That’s a critical moment." ## SEC Conference It would be far from the first time the CEO billionaire and the regulator have butted heads. Musk has repeatedly undermined the SEC's authority, going as far as to say outright that he does not "respect the SEC" in an [2018 interview](). In fact, Musk [had to go to court earlier this week]() over a now [infamous 2018 tweet]() in which he said he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, a move that triggered a lengthy investigation by the SEC. Musk later settled and [agreed to pay a $40 million penalty]() — but a lawsuit filed by investors is still ongoing. ## Insider Who? Musk sold 22 million shares at $163 in mid-December. Stock values plummeted down to just over $108 by January 3. In effect, the shares he sold shrank in value by $1.2 billion, the *WSJ* reports. Despite a disastrous 2022, Tesla's shares have recovered somewhat and are trading at around $130 at the time of writing. The news comes after Musk [dug deep into his own Tesla shares]() in large part to finance just over half of the $44 billion he [spent to buy Twitter](). Musk's inflammatory rhetoric and chaotic leadership of the social media company has only [angered Tesla shareholders even further](). Tesla's shares fell by a shocking 65 percent last year, resulting in Musk [setting a Guinness World Record]() for the most amount of money a single human has lost, ever, wiping out an estimated $200 billion in net worth. But whether Musk broke any regulatory laws with his latest Tesla selloff in December — or whether it was a desperate move to keep the lights on at Twitter — remains to be seen. The news, however, won't do his [and his already tarnished car brand]() any good. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk Sold Tesla Shares Before Company Acknowledged Weakness]() \[*The Wall Street Journal*\] **More on Tesla:** *[Elon Musk's Lawyers Says San Francisco Hates Him Too Much for a Fair Trial]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()