Documents unveiled on a website show shareholders of Tesla claim the company and its founder Elon Musk set an improper value on its acquisition of SolarCity.
The website, PlainSite.org — a legal transparency advocate — released the documents earlier this week. Those documents stem from a lawsuit filed in 2016 that is still pending.
In them there is a tale of falsehoods, cover-up and manipulation that could only be described as staggering.
Shares of Tesla were trading nearly 6% lower when the news was released earlier in the week. Share price went from $244.92 to $226.56 in less than 24 hours.
The documents suggest a tangled web between Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. Musk is the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, and he’s the largest shareholder of Solar City.
The allegation is that Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity are “a pyramid atop which he (Musk) sat.” The allegations also say that Musk invested money from SpaceX into SolarCity and that fact was hidden from auditors Ernst & Young before the 2016 acquisition.
The lawsuit brief said SpaceX used $165 million of its money as non-recourse bonds and that it was not disclosed to Ernst & Young how soon SolarCity would make those bond payments.
Keep in mind, SolarCity was co-founded by Musk’s cousin, Lyndon Rive. Rive also served as CEO of the company prior to the buyout.
The biggest issue is that Ernst & Young said SolarCity was insolvent after Tesla closed the $2.6 billion deal.
What this boils down to is many of those who invested in Tesla were also invested in SolarCity — or, in Musk’s case, related to someone with interest — and, instead of letting SolarCity fall by the wayside, Tesla and SpaceX were used to prop up the company rather than see it float away into potential bankruptcy.
The problem is some of the Tesla shareholders claim that’s not what they signed up for.
Hence you now have a lawsuit.
Tesla has dismissed the lawsuit, calling the claims “false and misleading.”
“These allegations are based on the claims of plaintiff’s lawyers looking for a payday, and are not representative of our shareholders who support our mission and ultimately voted in favor of the acquisition,” the company said in a statement to CNBC.
Now remember, this isn’t the only lawsuit Tesla and Musk are facing.
Walmart is suing Tesla, claiming solar panels installed by Tesla atop some Walmart stores burst into flames and caused extensive building damage.
The company is also being sued by the family of a driver who died in a collision with a tractor-trailer. The claim is Tesla’s Autopilot function failed, causing the accident. The suit — filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Florida, is the second such lawsuit filed against the automaker.
With regard to the stockholder suit, the website released only a percentage of the documents filed as part of the claim. CNBC reported PlainSite.org has filed a motion to unseal a larger portion of the documents to the public.
Wait and see.