Tesla sinks after the SEC sues Elon Musk over tweets

James Glover / Reuters

Tesla shares fell by as much as 5% in after-hours trading Thursday following a report that the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Elon Musk.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Musk, the electric-car maker's CEO, was facing a criminal probe over his tweet in August that he was considering taking the company private and had secured funding.

The suit alleged that Musk falsely claimed he could take the company private, Bloomberg reported.

In a company statement after the tweet, Musk said Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund had brought up taking Tesla private multiple times for almost two years. The fund recently bought a 5% stake in Tesla. Musk said he met with the fund's managing director on July 31 and left that meeting confident that a deal to take Tesla private would close.

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