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Comment by minimaxir | Hacker News Reader

A bit anticlimactic. The only reason the SEC brought charges publicly was because Musk refused the first settlement offer (with similar conditions) anyways.

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well it turned into a classic no admit no deny settlement

this is a much better settlement and easier to swallow.

if he had to admit it then the criminal charge would have been emboldened. unfortunately the settlement itself can still be used as ammunition, but it is contains no admission (or denial) of guilt.

The proposal they previously rejected had an offer of no admission of guilt as well.[1] It's a very slightly worse settlement now, the apparent duration that he is barred from the chairmanship was increased by a year.

Most likely Musk wanted the optics of declaring himself innocent, rejecting the offer and feigning a fight. I'd be surprised if everyone around him have not been encouraging him to settle, the downside risk was far too great vs the modest settlement pain.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/28/teslas-musk-pulled-plug-on-s...

I've been wondering if he didn't settle because he wanted to gauge the reaction to fighting it out. Like you, I bet there was a lot of pressure put on by stakeholders to negotiate a settlement once it became public.

I have been thinking of admission of wrongdoing in lawsuits for a while now.

There’s the still the DOJ investigation, so he’s very much in potential hot water, albeit less so than before. The odds of him facing criminal charges was always lower than the civil side, but he’s still at risk. Plus, he’s still facing a raft of civil suits beyond the SEC, even beyond the one from the man he kept accusing of being a pedophile.

> so he’s very much in potential hot water

I don't think so. He was in much more risk before, with SEC investigation. The accuser in civil suit is asking for $75k worth of damages. I think Musk can pay off that fine and be free from it. I guess there will be no jail time. Although, i'm not a lawyer.

Plus, he’s still facing a raft of civil suits beyond the SEC, even beyond the one from the man he kept accusing of being a pedophile.

As I said, beyond that suit, i.e. the suits he’s facing over the tweets. And the DOJ investigation.

The defamation accuser's complaint alleges compensatory damages "in excess of" $75k only because it's a jurisdictional requirement for US federal court. He will seek much more at trial, plus additional punitive damages.

Yeah he will, and he'll get paid and it will be junk money to someone like Musk. That's not the DOJ case anyway.

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