business model is controversial tesla without elon musk at the wheel well that's hard to imagine but it is what u.s. regulators wants to see they've accused tesla c.e.o. you know musk of securities fraud with false statements about plans to take the company private and a complaint filed in manhattan federal court the f.c.c. said must quote knew or was reckless in not knowing that he was misleading investors in a series of tweets last months i'm considering taking tesla private at four hundred twenty dollars funding secured this is the message tesla see you know iran must tweeted to his twenty two million followers last month and here's the response of u.s. regulators who've charged him with fraud. musk statements misled members of the investing public to believe that it was virtually certain he could take tesla