Tesla CEO Elon Musk talks to CNBC on May 16, 2023.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Twitter has suspended the accounts of Plainsite and its founder Aaron Greenspan, prolific Tesla and critic of Elon Musk on Tuesday afternoon.
Plainsite is a web based database that gives state and federal court records and other public records to users freed from charge. The location also offers analytics features for paying subscribers to assist lawyers and litigants gain insights into lawyers, judges, government offices, and the law.
Greenspan has been closely following litigation by or against corporations primarily within the US, including Tesla, Twitter (which Musk privately acquired in an acquisition last yr), in addition to competitors GM, goal and plenty of others. He and Musk have also been involved in litigation over time.
On the time of the account suspension, Plainsite boasted over 24,000 Twitter followers. Greenspan’s personal account had around 2,500 followers.
The suspension contradicts public statements by Twitter’s Executive Chairman and CTO Elon Musk and newly appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino. Yaccarino was previously the worldwide head of promoting at NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
In April 2022, after Musk announced his intention to accumulate Twitter, he tweeted: “I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter because that is what free speech means.”
Recently, Yaccarino wrote in a company memo that a healthy civilization needs “unfiltered information sharing and open dialogue in regards to the issues that matter most to us.” She also said within the memo, “You have to be free to talk your mind. All of us should.”
Greenspan told CNBC on Thursday that he has yet to receive word from Twitter as to why the corporate suspended his accounts, although he has asked for each to be reinstated.
He also discussed a number of the reasons he began Plainsite’s “Legal Transparency Initiative” and the way he got here to be considered Elon Musk’s nemesis.
“I created Plainsite with two friends in 2011 because we were all wondering why Occupy Wall Street wasn’t having the impact we were hoping for,” he recalls. “No CFOs went to prison for the 2008 financial crisis, despite the fact that it was really obvious that a crime had been committed somewhere. We thought a part of the rationale was that folks didn’t understand what the law said and what loopholes banks or directors were able to use to avoid being held accountable.”
Over time, Greenspan had short stocks in some corporations he researched and wrote about on Plainsite, revealing those positions as he held them. He said today shouldn’t be Tesla short, but he was previously.
Why Plainsite began taking a look at Tesla
Plainsite began targeted research on Tesla in 2018 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Musk and Tesla of civil securities fraud.
The allegations got here after Musk tweeted that he was considering privatizing Tesla at $420 a share and had secured funds for it, which brought trading to a halt that day and sent Tesla shares into a period of volatility for several weeks.
Musk and Tesla settled the costs with regulators without pleading guilty or with the ability to claim innocence.
Greenspan said: “I had no real interest in Tesla until the SEC took motion against the corporate and Elon earlier this yr. I assumed it may be overvalued given the undeniable fact that it has been in trouble with financial regulators.”
The Twitter community, including short sellers and other material experts thinking about what Tesla is doing, has develop into frequent Plainsite users and subscribers.
Court filings and public records, which Plainsite easily searched, often revealed details of Tesla’s problems and tactics. Plain records obtained from FOIA requests have been widely quoted by the press, including CNBC, Reuters, NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and plenty of others.
As of 2018, Greenspan has made court and other public documents available on Plainsite that reveal:
- Twitter is facing greater than 25 lawsuits on no payments to suppliers since Elon Musk took power in October 2022.
- Whilst Musk repeatedly promised shareholders that Tesla was on the verge of delivering a “Level 4-5” self-driving robotaxi, Autopilot engineers classified its most advanced driver assistance systems as “Level 2” in official government communications with the California DMV. The Level 2 system shouldn’t be self-driving, requiring the motive force to maintain their hands on the steering wheel.
- Complaints sent to Attorneys General in Texas, Nevada AND Ohioshowing that Tesla customers there have been unable to get the electrical vehicle manufacturer to supply the required documentation to register their vehicles with the local DMV.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk once tried to refer former Gigafactory Tesla litigator, whistleblower Martin Tripp to the Nevada District Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution (p. 192).
- Elon Musk knew, but didn’t tell shareholders, that SolarCity was facing a liquidity crisis at a time when Tesla’s board was pushing for a solar installer takeover that was began by Musk’s cousins and where Musk was a major investor and board member.
in May 2020 Greenspan sued Tesla promoter alleging harassment and named Elon Musk as a contributor to that harassment within the lawsuit.
In February 2023 Musk sued Greenspan for posting correspondence between them on Twitter and Plainsite. Emails are still available on Plainsite.
Twitter didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.