The SEC is looking into Tesla's finances

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December subpoenaed Tesla asking for financial information.
• Tesla did not specify the kinds of data and financial arrangements the SEC sought details about, and the SEC declined Business Insider's request for comment.
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the SEC have clashed in recent years over Musk's tweets.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December subpoenaed Tesla asking for financial information, the electric-car maker said in its 2019 annual report, which it released on Thursday.

"On December 4, 2019, the SEC...issued a subpoena seeking information concerning certain financial data and contracts including Tesla's regular financing arrangements," Tesla said.

The report did not specify the kinds of data and financial arrangements the SEC sought details about, and the SEC declined Business Insider's request for comment.

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Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company also disclosed that the SEC has ended an investigation into predictions the electric-car maker had made about the production of its Model 3 sedan.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has clashed with the SEC during the past two years. The agency sued Musk in 2018 after he said he had secured the financing necessary to take Tesla private, alleging that Musk was not as close to acquiring funding for the deal as he indicated.

In their settlement, Musk did not admit or deny the agency's allegations, but had to step down as the chairman of Tesla's board of directors for three years, pay a $20 million fine, and receive approval for all future written communications that could be relevant to Tesla shareholders.

In 2019, the SEC asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt of the court that approved their 2018 settlement after Musk tweeted a projection about vehicle production. The SEC said in a court filing that Musk had violated the terms of their settlement by not receiving approval from Tesla before publishing the tweet.

Musk and the agency ended up revising the settlement to be more specific about the subjects it covered.

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