Judge knocks down Elon Musk’s bid to end SEC consent decree

A federal judge on Wednesday knocked down Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s bid to terminate a settlement agreement he struck with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency charged him with securities fraud in September 2018. The judge also denied Musk’s motion to quash a newer subpoena by the SEC.

The financial regulators had charged Tesla and Musk with making “false and misleading” statements to investors when the CEO announced on Twitter on Aug. 7, 2018, that he was thinking of taking the automaker private at $420 a share and had “funding…