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Comment by theptip | Hacker News Reader

I think there's a bit of overexcitement going on in this thread; it doesn't look to me like Musk is going to jail on this one.

This part is interesting:

> The SEC had crafted a settlement with Musk that it was preparing to file Thursday morning, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Musk’s lawyers called SEC lawyers to say they were no longer interested in proceeding with the agreement, it said.

If his lawyers had a settlement lined up, and then retracted it, that means that they are confident they can win a better outcome in court. The deal they were going to cut did not involve Musk going to jail, so the outcome that Musk's expensive lawyers are betting on by retracting the settlement presumably also doesn't involve that.

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> If his lawyers had a settlement lined up, and then retracted it, that means that they are confident they can win a better outcome in court.

It only means that the decision was made to risk a worse outcome in court in hopes of getting a better one. Musk is famously willing to take big risks and make big decisions himself, so it’s possible that his lawyers do not have such confidence and recommended taking the settlement.

It’s also possible that he sees this as the only chance to retain control of the company, which would be such a bad outcome that he feels he must do anything to avoid it.

Either that or Elon refused the deal the lawyers crafted and is going against their advice. It's not like he never makes rash decisions.

Part of the deal was that he step down as CEO. I think that was not acceptable to him. Ultimately, I believe he will lose. A strong operator to handle traditional car company problems will make TSLA sky rocket

Do you have a source for that, or is this a inference based on the rejection of the deal?

Source pls?

Faber just said on CNBC the settlement was couldn't be chairman for 2 years, add a couple independent directors, and pay a personal fine. I initially heard "step down"... But it seems just from the board for a couple years

>A strong operator to handle traditional car company problems will make TSLA sky rocket

I think that being able to cheat through environmental regulations will not be helpful in an electric vehicle company.

This immediate matter was never about jail. The SEC doesn’t jail you, they just make you poor.

What’s triggering the discussion of jail is the rumor that the SEC referred some of this to the DOJ. That’s when you start talking about jail.

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