The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday accused Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk of fraud and sought to remove him from his role in charge of the electric car company, saying he made a series of "false and misleading" tweets about potentially taking Tesla private last month.
Musk is the public face of Tesla and losing him would be a big blow for the money-losing carmaker, which has a market value of more than $50 billion, chiefly because of investors' belief in Musk's leadership.
The Department of Justice, which has the authority to press criminal charges, has also questioned the company about Musk's tweets, the company said this month.