Elon Musk reportedly hires lawyer who used to work for SEC

Tesla CEO Elon
Musk.
Max Whittaker / Getty
Images

• Tesla CEO
  Elon
  Musk has hired two lawyers, Roel Campos and Steven Farina,
  as the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly
  investigates statements Musk made about converting Tesla into a
  private company, Fox
  Business Network reports.
• Campos was an SEC commissioner from 2002 until
  2007.
• Farina and Campos list securities enforcement and
  securities litigation among their areas of focus.
• Tesla, Campos,
  and Farina did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s
  requests for comment.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hired two lawyers as the Securities and
Exchange Commission reportedly investigates statements Musk made
about converting Tesla into a private company, Fox
Business Network reports.

One of the lawyers Musk reportedly retained, Roel Campos, was an
SEC commissioner from 2002 until 2007. Campos is a partner at the
firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed and lists securities enforcement,
securities litigation, and regulatory cases among his areas of
focus on the firm’s
website. Musk has also reportedly retained Steven Farina, a
partner at Williams & Connolly who focuses on securities
enforcement and securities litigation, among other practice
areas, according to the firm’s
website.

The Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino said
on Twitter that Tesla’s board of directors has retained
Daniel Kramer, a partner at Paul Weiss. Kramer lists securities
litigation and regulatory cases among his specialties on the
firm’s
website.

Tesla, Campos, Farina, and Kramer did not immediately
respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.

Musk 
attracted
controversy in August
 over his statements about
wanting to take Tesla private, which raised questions about the
certainty of funding Musk referenced in a tweet and where exactly
that funding would come from. 
Fox
Business
 and The New York Times reported that the
SEC had 
sent
subpoenas to Tesla
 concerning Tesla’s plans to
explore going private and Musk’s statements about the
process.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the agency had been
investigating how the company communicated production issues it
faced with its Model 3 sedan before Musk’s tweets about going
private.

Two weeks after saying he was considering taking Tesla private,
Musk said
it will remain
a public company. Though he said in a post on Tesla’s
website that he believed there was “more
than enough funding” to complete a go-private
deal, he said the process of going private could create
distractions for the company and problems for its current
investors, some of whom had told Musk they would prefer Tesla
remain public, he said.

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