Elon Musk ‘wanted to impress girlfriend with $420 weed joke’

Elon Musk tweeted that he was taking Tesla private and listing the share price at $420 because he thought his girlfriend would find it funny, it’s claimed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said the tech tycoon rounded the price up from $419 to $420 – the number associated with marijuana – to get a chuckle form his then-partner, singer Grimes.

Musk, 47, is being sued by the SEC for fraud for the announcement he made to his 22million followers, which saw Tesla’s stock to shoot up.

Elon Musk listed Tesla’s share price as $420 – the number associated with weed – for a laugh, according to The Securities and Exchange Commission

The SEC claims Musk recently learned of the link between 420 and marijuana and wanted to make his singer girlfriend Grimes (pictured) laugh

In its lawsuit, the SEC said: ‘According to Musk, he calculated the $420 price per share based on a 20% premium over that day’s closing share price because he thought 20% was a ‘standard premium’ in going-private transaction.

‘This calculation resulted in a price of $419, and Musk stated that he rounded the price up to $420 because he had recently learned about the number’s significance in marijuana culture and thought his girlfriend “would find it funny, which admittedly is not a great reason to pick a price”.’ 

On August 7, Musk took to Twitter to say he was considering taking his electric car company private with ‘funding secured’.

The SEC said he’d ‘not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source’.  

Musk, 47, is being sued by the SEC for fraud for announcing plans to take Tesla private

On August 7 he announced he made the announcement to his 22million followers, saying he had ‘funding secured’

Musk’s relationship with indie pop singer Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, unravelled after the tweet. The pair began dating in early 2018. 

Rapper, and friend of Grimes, Azealia Banks seemed to expose Musk on social media after posting direct messages sent between her and Boucher.

They included screenshots of texts in which Grimes admitted Musk was trying to make a joke with the share price.

Musk’s relationship with Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, unravelled after the tweet

‘So he rounded up to 420 for a laugh and now the sec is investigating him for fraud,’ Grimes texted Banks.

Musk explained his potential decision to take Tesla private by saying that he was in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund as a means t

o finance the deal.

‘I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. 

‘This is why I referred to ‘funding secured’ in the August 7th announcement,’ he wrote in a blog post. 

In a response to the lawsuit, Musk said: ‘This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed. 

‘Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way.’

Azealia Banks apologized to the Tesla CEO, weeks after she publicly revealed his tweet about taking Tesla private was a joke about marijuana.

Azealia Banks took to Instagram to apologize to the Tesla CEO, weeks after she publicly wrote about watching him have a meltdown at his Los Angeles home. She later deleted it 

Banks wrote in the letter, which she sent to Musk on August 19, that she felt ‘terrible about everything’. 

She didn’t specifically name Grimes, but made it obvious that was who she was talking about.

Banks appeared to want to leave the musician’s name out of her posts after claiming that Grimes had ditched their recording session to ‘coddle’ Musk after he tweeted about securing funding to take Tesla private. 

But Banks had no issue telling Musk that she learned a ‘lot of personal information’ about him since she began her correspondence with Grimes earlier this summer.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk