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Elon Musk's lawyers subpoena head of Saudi Arabia's $620 billion wealth fund for Tesla 'funding secured' tweets case

Jan 4, 2023, 18:54 IST
Business Insider
Investors are suing Elon Musk over 2018 tweets where he claimed to have the necessary "funding secured" to take Tesla private.Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
  • Investors are suing Elon Musk over an August 2018 tweet where he claimed he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private.
  • Musk's lawyers have subpoenaed Saudi Arabia's top wealth manager to be a defense witness in the upcoming court case.
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Elon Musk's lawyers are trying to force Saudi Arabia's top wealth manager to testify in upcoming litigation over a now-infamous tweet in which the Tesla CEO said he was considering taking the EV manufacturer private.

Tesla's legal team subpoenaed Private Investment Fund governor Yasir al-Rumayyan on December 19, according to documents filed Tuesday – with a San Francisco court case set to start later this month.

Investors suing Musk say that the world's second-richest man manipulated Tesla's share price in 2018 when he claimed that he had "funding secured" to take the company private at $420 a share.

That deal never happened, with Tesla remaining publicly listed and trading at $108.10 a share as of Tuesday's closing bell.

PIF is a sovereign wealth fund – meaning that it invests on behalf of Saudi Arabia's government. It manages around $620 billion worth of assets, according to its most recent annual report.

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Musk has since claimed publicly and in court documents that he had a handshake deal for the fund to provide the necessary cash for Tesla to delist from the S&P 500.

Previous court filings released in April 2022 showed that Musk slammed al-Rumayyan via text message after Bloomberg reported that the two parties were merely "in talks" over a potential Tesla buyout.

"I read the article. It is weak sauce and still makes me sound like a liar. It is filled with equivocation and in no way indicates the strong interest you conveyed in person," Musk texted al-Rumayyan in August 2018.

"Let's see the numbers and get our people to meet and discuss. We cannot approve something that we don't have sufficient information on," al-Rumayyan responded.

"I am your friend. So, please don't treat me like an enemy," he added.

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As well as serving as PIF governor, al-Rumayyan is the chair of the state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco and the English soccer club Newcastle United – in which the fund bought an 80% stake in 2021.

Tesla and PIF did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Read more: Elon Musk raged at the head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund for failing to support his bid to take Tesla private, texts show

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