Musk Says He's ‘Deeply Appreciative’ of Jury Verdict Finding Him Innocent in Investor Lawsuit

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla chief Elon Musk said late Friday he is deeply appreciative of a US jury that found him not liable for losses experienced by investors following a 2018 "funding secured" tweet.

“Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed! I am deeply appreciative of the jury’s unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case,” Musk, 51, said via Twitter on Friday.

Musk spent about eight hours on the witness stand during the trial as he was both vilified as a rich narcissist, and then defended as a visionary trying to protect "the little guy," reported AP.

Earlier in the day, a nine-person jury found that investors failed to prove Musk’s tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 hurt them financially after the proposal never came to fruition. Jurors reached their decision after deliberating for about an hour following a three-week trial.

The federal judge overseeing the case had previously ruled that Musk's 2018 tweet on secured funding had been untrue, and that Musk had acted reckless when he opted to post on the social media platform.

In September 2018, Musk settled a fraud charge brought against him by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the same tweet, agreeing to pay $20 million in penalties to investors, while his company Tesla also paid an additional $20 million.

Had Musk been found liable for the August 2018 tweets he would have had to pay a fine worth billions of dollars in damages, which could have knocked him from his current status as the second-richest person in the world. Musk is currently worth $185.3 billion after luxury conglomerate-owner Bernard Arnault.