Elon Musk, SEC given one more week to resolve contempt dispute

April 19 (UPI) -- A federal judge has given Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission another week to resolve a legal dispute over release of information about Tesla.

In a joint letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, filed with the court of the Southern District of New York, both sides said progress was being made. On Thursday, Nathan gave them until April 25 to reach a resolution.

The two sides agreed in October 2018 that Musk would have SEC approval before tweeting any information about the Tesla company that investors could consider relevant. It came after Musk erroneously announced that Tesla had secured funding allowing him to take the company private, at $420 per share. Musk and Tesla each paid $20 million in fines as part of a settlement with the SEC over the unfounded information. The settlement cost Musk his role as Tesla chairman.

In February, Musk tweeted without SEC review that the company would manufacture 500,000 cars this year.

Although he later corrected himself, saying the figure was an annualized projection and that 400,000 was closer to the 2019 goal, the SEC asked the court to hold him in contempt for violating their deal.

In a hearing earlier on April 4, Nathan suggested that both sides "take a deep breath, put on your reasonableness pants" and secure a workable solution.