SAN FRANCISCO, US: Tesla Inc. and Chief Executive Elon Musk were sued on Friday by an investor who said they fraudulently engineered a scheme to “completely decimate” short-sellers, including through Musk’s proposal to take the electric car company private.
The complaint filed by Kalman Isaacs said Musk’s alleged false and misleading tweets on Aug. 7 about a possible going-private transaction, and Tesla’s failure to correct them, were a “nuclear attack” on short-sellers that inflated Tesla’s stock price and violated federal securities laws.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed class-action complaint filed in the federal court in San Francisco. The company is based in nearby Palo Alto, California.
Short-sellers borrow shares they believe are overpriced, sell them, and then repurchase shares later at what they hope will be a lower price to make a profit.
Such investors have long been an irritant for Musk, who has sometimes used Twitter to criticize them.
Musk’s Aug. 7 tweets, including when he said there was “funding secured” to possibly take Tesla private, helped push Tesla’s stock price more than 13 percent above the prior day’s close.
The stock has since given back more than two-thirds of that gain, in part following reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had begun inquiring about Musk’s activity.
Musk has not offered evidence that he has lined up the necessary funding to take Tesla private, and the complaint did not offer proof to the contrary.
But Isaacs said Tesla’s and Musk’s conduct caused the volatility that cost short-sellers hundreds of millions of dollars from having to cover their short positions, and caused all Tesla securities purchasers to pay artificially inflated prices.
Tesla’s market value exceeds $60 billion, and its shares closed Friday up $3.04 at $355.49. Musk had tweeted that Tesla could go private for $420 per share.
According to the complaint, Isaacs bought 3,000 Tesla shares on Aug. 8 to cover his short position. The proposed class period begins on the afternoon of Aug. 7, and ends the next day.
The case is Isaacs v Musk et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 18-04865. (
Lawsuit accuses Tesla’s Musk of fraud over tweets, going-private proposal
Lawsuit accuses Tesla’s Musk of fraud over tweets, going-private proposal
Aramco’s 13% rally helps Saudi stocks post second weekly gain
RIYADH: Saudi Aramco extended its year-to-date rally to nearly 13 percent on Thursday, helping the Kingdom’s benchmark stock index secure a second straight weekly gain despite a weaker final trading session.
Saudi Aramco shares, which carry the heaviest weighting on the Saudi Exchange, closed at SR26.86 ($7.16), leaving the stock 12.72 percent higher since the start of 2026. The stock also remained 3.09 percent above last week’s close, even after falling 1.1 percent in Thursday’s session.
The rise in energy shares came as escalating tensions in the Middle East pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel, after attacks on tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz heightened concerns over supply disruptions.
The Tadawul All Share Index maintained its weekly uptrend, rising nearly 1.07 percent week on week to close at 10,778.32, despite falling 0.45 percent in Thursday’s session. Compared with the first trading day of the year, the index has gained 4.01 percent.
Total trading turnover on the benchmark index reached SR5.05 billion at Thursday’s close, with 88 stocks advancing and 176 declining.
Aramco’s performance continued to anchor sentiment after the company reported adjusted net income of $104.7 billion for 2025 earlier this week, while net profit fell 12.1 percent year on year to $93.39 billion, compared with $106.25 billion in 2024, as lower crude prices weighed on earnings despite higher sales volumes across oil, gas and refined products.
On a March 10 earnings call, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned that prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz could have severe implications for global energy markets. Roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil normally passes through the waterway each day, but shipments have been largely blocked.
“There would be catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil markets and the longer the disruption goes on ... the more drastic the consequences for the global economy,” he said.
“While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced.”
Saudi equities showed mixed performance in Thursday’s session. The MSCI Tadawul Index fell 5.99 points, or 0.40 percent, to close at 1,476.76.
The Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu gained 132.47 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 22,370.4, with 38 stocks advancing and 34 declining.
On March 11, the International Energy Agency announced the release of 400 million barrels of oil from its reserves, the largest such move in its history. As part of that, the US said it would release 172 million barrels starting next week.
