Elon Musk believed Saudi Arabia would help take Tesla private: report

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., believed he had a verbal agreement in place with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to help finance a plan to take the electric automaker private, Wall Street Journal reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. 

Musk was sued Thursday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, which alleged that he misled investors when he tweeted last month that he had funding secured to lead a Tesla buyout. 

SEC, which is seeking to oust Musk from Tesla, said in its complaint that he “knew that he had never discussed a going-private transaction at $420 per share with any potential funding source.”

In his own defense, Musk said that regulators aren’t taking into account that Middle Eastern businesses routinely operate using verbal agreements in principle, not necessarily written deals, the source said.

Musk has told people that he could have led a go-private transaction using his own stake in SpaceX, the privately held multi-billion dollar aerospace firm, if major Tesla investors were on board.