Senator Warren is again pushing the SEC to investigate Tesla and Elon Musk

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., again called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Tesla, CEO Elon Musk and the company’s board of directors for what she called “possible misuse of Tesla resources and conflicts of interests stemming from Mr. Musk’s dual role at Tesla and X—renamed by Twitter.”

Warren, who sits on both the Senate banking and armed services committees, sent a similar request to the SEC last July and a letter to Tesla chairman Robin Denholm expressing similar concerns in the past.

IN a six-page letter dated March 21, Warren noted the federal agency’s new concerns, writing that recent evidence shows that “Tesla’s board is not independent of Mr. Musk, who uses his control of the board for his own personal gain, not in the best interest of Tesla shareholders.”

Warren’s letter cited a Delaware Chancery Court ruling from January of this year in which Judge Kathleen McCormick found that Elon Musk controls Tesla and its board “breached their fiduciary duties when they assigned Musk an ‘unachievable’ plan to equity compensation of $55.8 billion. “

Tesla’s stock price is down about 30% year to date, Warren noted.

“Recent public statements and actions by Mr. Musk have raised new concerns about conflicts of interest, the diversion of Tesla’s resources to Mr. Musk’s private companies,” she wrote, referring to Musk’s demand for 25 percent of the votes over Tesla. his desire to move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas and his threat to develop AI products elsewhere if he doesn’t get that control, among other things.

Tesla Vice President of Investor Relations Martin Viecha and Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development Rohan Patel did not respond to requests for comment. Tesla does not maintain a traditional public relations team in North America.

Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and defense contractor SpaceX, as well as chief technology officer and owner of X and founder of xAI, Neuralink and The Boring Co., posted a comment about Warren on his social media platform in response to the senator’s letter.

Musk said: “Senator Caron’s primary economic and tax advisor is the father of SBF. I suspect some of that comes from him.” Musk referred to Warren as “Senator Karen” in previous posts.

Musk was referring to Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, who was convicted in 2023 of seven charges against him in connection with the 2022 collapse of his crypto company FTX and subsidiary hedge fund Alameda Research.

SBF’s father, Stanford legal scholar Joseph Bankman, signed a letter in support of her proposed 2016 legislation aimed at simplifying the US tax code and reportedly advised her on the legislation.

A spokesman for Warren’s office confirmed that Bankman was not involved.

An SEC spokesman told CNBC via email Thursday that agency chairman Gary Gensler “will respond directly to members of Congress” and not through public statements or press releases.

Musk and the SEC have already clashed numerous times over the years. Federal financial regulators accused Musk of civil securities fraud after he tweeted in 2018 that he was exploring a private deal for Tesla at $420 per share and had “funding secured” for it. Musk’s tweets led to a trading halt in Tesla shares and sent the company’s stock price tumbling for weeks.

The SEC is now investigating whether Musk or anyone else committed securities fraud in 2022 when he began buying shares in Twitter ahead of the company’s leveraged buyout. Musk was late to file for disclosure of his initial investment in Twitter before taking the company private and renaming it X Corp.

Another investigation into Tesla and Musk would increase tensions between the agency and one of the world’s richest people on paper.

On Thursday, Tesla shares closed down one point for the day at $172.82, but rose shortly after hours.

Read it Sen. Warren’s full letter to the SEC.