Elon Musk Seeks Dismissal Of $7.5 Billion Insider Trading Lawsuit Tied To Tesla Stock Sales

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has urged a judge in Delaware to dismiss an investor lawsuit, which alleges that he improperly sold more than $7.5 billion in shares after receiving inside information that the company would miss its production and delivery targets three years ago.

Tesla’s stock edged 0.5% higher in afternoon trade. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the EV maker moved higher but remained within ‘neutral’ territory.

The suit “offers a host of conclusory allegations related to events that occurred years ago, none of which is alleged to have actually harmed the company,” stated a Monday filing by Musk’s lawyers, first reported by Bloomberg.

Musk’s lawyers argued in a filing Monday that the lawsuit was filed improperly in Delaware Chancery Court as Tesla moved its state of incorporation to Texas last year. “In anticipation of the impending redomestication, Michael Perry rushed to this Court to file a derivative lawsuit shortly before the redomestication,” the lawsuit said, citing the plaintiff. 

Perry had sued Musk in 2024, claiming that he “exploited his position at Tesla,” and sold shares ahead of the company missing its fourth-quarter (Q4) estimates in 2022. According to him, Musk then used these gains to aid his buyout of X, back when it was still called Twitter.

The filing also disputed those claims that Tesla’s board of directors pandered to Musk and allowed him to benefit from the company’s struggles. “The Amended Complaint offers a host of conclusory allegations related to events that occurred years ago, none of which is alleged to have actually harmed the company,” it said.

The filing by Musk’s lawyers coincided with Tesla announcing that it had granted Musk an interim award of 96 million shares of restricted stock on Monday.

Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 20% in 2025 but gained nearly 67% over the past 12 months. 

Read also: Anthropic Unveils New AI Model Ahead Of OpenAI’s GPT-5 Release – Here’s What It Can Do

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

Share

·

Add us on