Elon Musk, made over $150 million dollars in
the past few weeks, without even lifting a finger.
But that is a favorite american past time, among our fellow billionaires, right.
But the real issue here is that he did it while breaking the law, and
the question is whether there will be any consequences for it.
>> No.
>> Don't jinx, spoiler alert, [LAUGH] okay, spoiler alert.
>> Yeah, our audience was on pins and needles,
is a rich man gonna get prosecuted in America, boy that's a big mystery.
>> No he recently announced, that he now owns 9.2% in twitter,
he's a major shareholder for twitter.
That's likely gonna come with some other concerns, but
let's focus on what he failed to do here and which laws he broke.
Elon Musk was 11 days late,
in publicly declaring he had amassed a large stake in twitter.
That admission may have earned him $156 million,
according to a half dozen legal, and securities experts.
That's because of a 50 year old law,
that requires that investors notified the securities and exchange commission.
When they surpass a 5% stake in a company,
must reach that benchmark on march 14th, according to the filings.
But he made his public disclosure, only on monday of this week, in between though.
He continued to buy stock at the price of around $39 per share,
bringing his total stake to 9.2%.
After his disclosure, twitter's share price rose roughly 30% and
is now above $50 per share.
You guys understand what he did there,
doing the public disclosure increases the value of the shares.
He was buying the shares at a much lower value, and then he announced.
You get what I'm saying, like he got it at a discount, and he's not supposed to
do that, he's supposed to disclose immediately, he failed to do it.
And here's a fun graph, showing you what that looks like, so you see it kinda flat.
Before Elon musk had made the public disclosure, and
then once he makes the public disclosure, the share value shoots up.
>> Yeah, so I don't know what the Elon fanboys are called,
are they musk stands, elon stands anyways.
So those guys I guarantee you right now, are screaming into their computers or
their iphones or whatever, no that's smart business is smart.
>> He's breaking federal law.
>> Okay, [CROSSTALK] so first of all.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. >> Why don't you break federal laws,
let's see you do it, let's see what happens to you.
Break a federal law, seriously, commit fraud, financial fraud,
do something like that.
And see if the federal government a, treats you in the same way, but
more importantly, if people are gonna be calling you smart.
>> Yeah, no they're gonna be calling a criminal, we're kidding,
don't actually do it, you'll go to jail.
Elon musk has no chance of being punished, certainly in any meaningful way.
But guys, what I was getting to is, he's ripping you off, because if he announced
when he was supposed to at 5%, you could have gotten in on twitter too.
So if you're part of the folks who are buying stocks online now,
sometimes in mass etc.
And you're part of that crew, that crew loves Elon Musk, but
not of course not all of them, but a lot of them do.
But he rips you off on a regular basis more than anybody does,
he does the bitcoin.
Manipulation, and you guys going when it's, high and
then he sells it, [CROSSTALK] and he dumps it.
And then it crashes, he's taking money out of your pocket in this case on twitter.
If you had known when you were supposed to know,
you could have also been part of that rise up on twitter.
And you could have made money off of it, but he kept a secret cuz he wanted to make
more money for himself, even though it was against the law.
But nonetheless, I guarantee you that elon fans, who are probably into bitcoin.
And probably into investing, are gonna go yes, he was so smart for
ripping me off, wait what, yeah it doesn't matter, I don't care about facts.
>> No, I'm convinced that his biggest supporters on social media,
I love the fact that he's been manipulating crypto.
They've benefited from it, which is why they're huge Elon musk's stance.
[CROSSTALK] But either way look, I don't care if he's made you money,
I don't care if he's stolen money from your pocket.
The point here is, he broke the law and he will have no consequences, right.
Some legal experts are like, he might get a slap on the wrist,
maybe he might pay a fine.
But he made an additional $156 million
11 days while breaking the law.
If anyone else had done that,
if an ordinary person who is not already tremendously wealthy.
Played a game like that, they'd be in prison immediately,
like they'd be indicted, there would be a serious trial about it.
But no, it's Elon musk, so he's above the law, much like other billionaires.
>> Now, so look, we say that it is a general rule,
in this particular case, this law is built to be broken by rich people.
Because you have to have 5% of a public corporation, which is a massive amount of
money for almost any corporation, let alone one as big as twitter.
So, that's why the fine is only a couple $100,000,
because if you're buying 5% of the company.
You're buying beyond 5% of a public corporation,
you're always going to be dealing in millions of dollars.
In probably hundreds of millions of dollars, right, so
a fine of $100,000 is a joke, it's a total and utter joke.
Elon musk should just even pay, just to get rid of it,
because it will cost them more for lawyer fees, right.
But if it was a big fine, then he would use his team of lawyers,
and it would drag out for years and years.
And then they do a settlement, of like one or 2% of his ill gotten proceeds, three or
four years from now.
That's why the rich get away with everything in america, but
guys outside of television and mainstream media.
Everyone knows this, is a two tiered justice system, if you're middle class or
poor in america, you're screwed.
If you're rich, you can get away with almost anything, and we all know it.
>> And remember, our money, american taxpayer money,
went towards the research and development.
For tesla, for what Elon musk has profited handsomely off of,
but we as US taxpayers do not own equity in tesla, at all.
And that's another way that, billionaires,
people who are already incredibly privileged, and positions of power,
get treated very differently from ordinary people, like us right.
Like while we keep hearing over and over again,
that students who are buried in student loan debt.
Need to pick themselves up by the boot straps and suck it up,
we then have all of these weird justifications.
For the bad behavior that we see from people like Elon musk,
where they take complete use of our resources, we get nothing back in return,
and it's totally fine, right.
>> So, I was on a right wing podcast recently, Patrick Bet David,
it was a really good conversation.
I'm really happy with it, but we this issue of Elon musk came up and
the subsidies.
And I said wait now you guys are all business man, I'm a businessman.
If somebody invests into you, they would normally get equity, and
they would get a return on that investment.
So how come when the government, gives Elon musk this giant subsidy,
you don't think we should get equity in tesla.
And they said, because to be fair to them they were honest, and
they said no you're right.
That is how business works, we probably should have gotten equity,
because that's the taxpayers.
No, but the taxpayers always get screwed,
because the politicians just give to the rich, what was the amount of that subsidy?
>> I don't remember the exact, [CROSSTALK] it was a lot of money, why?
Because private investors, didn't want to take the risk of investing
in this electric car, venture that Elon musk wanted to do right.
You guys don't understand how much US taxpayers,
have provided the seed money, for the successful corporations.
That we see in this country, which then turn around, and
screw us over by refusing to pay their taxes.
By funding the worst politicians to ensure that we continue to live in this constant
state of deregulation, that again screws over ordinary people like us.
Like it's just it's messed up, that's how the system works, this country is I mean,
it's a democracy sort of, in reality there's complete corporate rule.
>> Yeah, we have oligarchs that run this country as well, and
the last thing is guys.
If you are Elon fans, and you're right wingers, make up your mind,
because he benefited from a massive government subsidy.
So are you in favor of big government, or are you against it,
cuz no one has been helped by big government more than Elon musk.
That's just a fact, so if you think that was great,
then fly your big government flag proudly, just don't be hypocrites.