Austin, Texas - Tesla revealed that it received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November due to a tweet by Elon Musk!

The carmaker's CEO had tweeted that he was taking the company private.

"The SEC had issued subpoenas to Tesla in connection with Elon Musk's prior statement that he was considering taking Tesla private. The take-private investigation was resolved and closed with a settlement entered into with the SEC in September 2018 and as further clarified in April 2019 in an amendment," Tesla said in a SEC filing.

"More recently, on November 16, 2021, the SEC issued a subpoena to us seeking information on our governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement, as amended," it continued.

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In September 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet that claimed he had secured funding for potentially taking Tesla private at $420 per share.

The lawsuit claimed that discussions Musk held with foreign investors in July 2018 did not confirm key deal terms and thus characterized the tweet as false, misleading and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly-traded companies.

Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman, although he was able to remain as CEO.

This is just the latest in a long line of havoc-wreaking tweets from the 50-year-old, who can often cause spikes and crashes with a simple sentence.