Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission will get a little more time to work it out.
U.S. Judge Alison Nathan is giving both parties a one-week extension to settle an ongoing dispute over Musk’s use of Twitter. The judge initially called for a resolution to be agreed upon by April 18, but a joint-request for an extension was filed.
“While we have not reached an agreement, counsel for the SEC, Mr. Musk, and counsel for Tesla met and conferred for over an hour by telephone earlier this week and are continuing to discuss a potential resolution,” the filing said. “Because our discussions are ongoing, we respectfully request to provide the Court with another joint submission on or before April 25, 2019, indicating whether we have reached an agreement in principle.”
If they can’t work out an understanding, then the judge will decide if Tesla’s chief executive should be held in contempt of court for violating an earlier agreement with the SEC regarding his use of Twitter.
Musk agreed in October to settle an SEC fraud complaint related to tweets saying he had “funding secured” to take the automaker private. As part of the settlement, Musk agreed to have potentially market-moving tweets reviewed before hitting send.
In February, Musk tweeted “Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019.” A follow-up tweet a few hours later updated the delivery number to 400,000 cars this year.
The SEC says those tweets weren’t approved, contained information material to Tesla, and thereby violated the agreement. The agency then asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt.