Elon Musk's latest Twitter antics have Tesla hurtling into uncharted territory - and could have legal ramifications for the CEO

Bill Pugliano / Stringer / Getty ImagesElon Musk sent Tesla share soaring on Tuesday after tweeting that he had a $420-per-share deal to take the company private with funding secured.The tweet vaults Tesla into uncharted territory, as a CEO has never conveyed such sensitive corporate information in such an unconventional and casual manner.It also raises some legal red flags, especially if any part of Musk's tweet is found to be untrue, according to a legal expert interviewed by Business Insider.Elon Musk's quest to become the most unorthodox CEO of all time took another strange turn on Tuesday.The Tesla chief took to Twitter around 1 p.m. ET, telling his 22.3 million followers that he had a deal in place to take his company private at $420 - a 4% premium to the stock's Monday closing price. Not only was he specific on the price, but he also said funding was fully secured.Tesla's stock immediately hit intraday highs, spiking more than 8% for the session before trading was halted around 2 p.m. ET. The shares resumed trading around 3:45 p.m. ET and quickly set another new daily high, climbing as much as 13%.In the end, Tesla added roughly $7 billion on the day. The stock also received a boost shortly before Musk's tweet on reports Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund acquired a $2 billion stake in the company.Markets InsiderWith that one tweet, Tesla was plunged into unprecedented market territory. Never before has the CEO of a company so massive and widely-followed had the hubris to disclose something so sensitive on a social media platform like Twitter.Typically you'd halt the stock to make an announcement like this, Greg Sichenzia, a lawyer who advises companies on securities law, told Business Insider by phone. I know he gets legal advice, but it's unclear whether he sought it before tweeting.And as speculative investor fervor raged, so did cries of market manipulation.Armchair Twitter pundits in particular frothed at the mouth. How could Musk flaut convention so flagrantly? Surely it was illegal. And while it very well might be, it's a lot less cut-and-dry than many seem to think.Ultimately, what it comes down to is whether what Musk tweeted was completely factual - and that means every part of it. If either the highly-specific $420-per-share price or the full funding is found to have been untrue, Musk could be legally liable, said Sichenzia.When you announce the price, it certainly smells like market manipulation, he told Business Insider. If any part of it isn't true, he could certainly be facing legal liability. It's surprising that the CEO of a company would announce news like that.Harvey Pitt, who formerly served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), made similar comments during an interview on CNBC. In his mind, whether Musk did something illegal comes down to the CEO's motive in the manner.If his comments were issued for the purpose of moving the price of the stock, that could be manipulation, and it could also be securities fraud, said Pitt. The use of a specific price for a potential going-private transaction is highly unprecedented, and therefore raises significant questions about what his intent was. So that would have to be investigated.Sichenzia says there could very well be an SEC investigation into the veracity of Musk's market-moving tweet. He says Musk should be particularly worried about a potential violation of Rule 10b-5 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which deals with the release of misleading statements.Perhaps the most damning part of Musk's tweet, as it pertains to Rule 10b-5, is once again its specificity, says Sichenzia. Even if it comes out that Musk had a fully funded deal in place at $400 per share, rather than $420, that could still be construced as materially misleading information.Even if Musk is able to avoid enforcement from the SEC, he could be facing a bevy of private legal challenges, says Sichenzia. He notes this is an entirely realistic scenario if Tesla's stock drops suddenly in the upcoming days.If people are buying, buying, buying on the hype, and the stock crashes back to earth, perhaps below where it was, that could be problematic for him, said Sichenzia. If the stock is down big, there could be private claims - some sort of class action.Musk send an email to all Tesla employees earlier today, which the company then posted on its blog, outlining a possible go-private scenario and his reasons for considering it.Musk's prolonged battle with Tesla short sellersImmediately after Musk's initial tweet about taking Tesla private, cynics on Twitter wondered aloud: Is this just the CEO's latest strike in his months-long battle against short sellers?If so, the ensuing stock surge was a flawless victory of sorts for Musk. The 8% increase likely cost short sellers hundreds of millions, squeezing their positions like a vice. After all, Tesla is the most shorted company in the US market by a margin of billions - and such large, extended positions have huge downside.In the event that Tesla does get taken private at the $420-per-share price floated by Musk, Tesla bears will incur an enormous $4.4 billion loss on the positions they've built throughout 2018, according to financial technology and analytics firm S3 Partners.In order to fully understand what a victory this is for Musk, one must be familiar with his ongoing crusade - which he usually wages over Twitter.If you're short, I suggest tiptoeing quietly to the exit … he taunted in May, following Tesla's previous earnings report.In a Rolling Stone profile last year, he called them jerks who want us to die , while also describing their behavior as hurtful. He also fired off a tweet in June 2017 in which he said short sellers want us to die so bad they can taste it .Then, in early April 2018, after a period of considerable stock strength, Musk escalated his taunts, tweeting , Stormy weather in Shortville.In the end, whether Musk's tweet was an ill-informed ploy to crush short sellers, a potentially illegal attempt to manipulate Tesla's stock, or a completely legitimate - albeit unconventional - corporate announcement, one thing is certain: the CEO never fails to entertain.Now read:One dirty word keeps popping up as Wall Street weighs the next market crash - and it should strike fear into the hearts of investors everywhereA $300 billion asset manager says investors are overlooking a huge threat that's building right in front of their eyesTraders keep finding new ways to bet against TeslaGet the latest Tesla stock price here. 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