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Elon Musk Mocks The SEC After Being Punished For Mouthing Off On Twitter

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared to poke fun at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Twitter Thursday after the agency punished him in September for fraud.

“Just want to [sic] that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!” Musk wrote in a tweet less than a week after agreeing to pay a fine connected to a tweet he wrote in August suggesting he obtained funds to take Tesla private.

Just want to that the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work. And the name change is so on point!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2018

Musk’s knock-down, dragged-out battles against Tesla’s critics are legendary. Some short-sellers say the tech guru frequently works to destroy their lives.

A self-proclaimed investment strategist known online only as “Montana Skeptic,” for instance, claimed in a July blog post that Musk obtained his private information after Tesla devotees doxxed him and published the information online. Montana voluntarily stepped away from publishing about Tesla to protect his employer from possible legal ramifications if Musk did decide to sue.

Montana made the accusation less than a week after Twitter user @shortshorterhmm published his personal information online. He has tangled with Tesla fans in the past, including inserting himself into a drawn-out social media spat with journalist Dan Neil, who gave the Tesla Model 3 a positive review in a July 19 editorial for The Wall Street Journal. Neil dinged his Twitter account shortly after the July 20 interaction.

Taking the company private was as much about targeting these critics as it was putting Tesla on a firm financial footing.

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