LISTEN: The future of Elon Musk’s empire was in peril in 2016. New documents reveal more about the desperate plan to save it.

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Elon MuskKyle Grillot/Reuters

Tesla shareholders registered a lawsuit against the company in 2016, alleging that CEO Elon Musk pushed the company to get SolarCity to enrich himself. They said it was a violation of fiduciary obligation.
On Thursday, several depositions (including among Musk) and documents included in the suit were printed on the website PlainSite, an organization focused on transparency in the US judicial system. The Think Computer Foundation initially obtained the documents. 
Some records showed that SolarCity had been facing a liquidity crisis if Tesla purchased it, and some Tesla board members had a lot to lose personally if the deal did not go through. The records revealed that the Tesla solar-roof-tile item, which was introduced to the public before the board approved the purchase, did not do the job. 
An email from Musk included in the lawsuit revealed he pushed to proceed the solar tile’s presentation to persuade the board to accept that the SolarCity acquisition.
“Latest feedback from major investors is very negative on SolarCity,” Musk said in an email to Peter Rive, SolarCity’s cofounder, on September 16, 2016. “We need to show them what the integrated product looks like. They just don’t get it. Needs to happen before the vote, so maybe aim for October 28th for a joint solar roof and Powerwall 2 unveiling.”
Musk’s lawyers have contended he did not really control the procedure for purchasing SolarCity because he did not vote on the deal, and that were completely informed of what had been going on at the 2 firms.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comments for this story. 
Listen to Linette Lopez’s story below, or see it in complete here

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Elon Musk said he probably wouldn’t support Tesla’s contentious SolarCity deal if he would go back in timeElon Musk called the Attorney who interviewed him to get a Tesla shareholder lawsuit’a bad human being’ and other insults through a bizarre depositionThe long run of Elon Musk’s empire had been in peril in 2016, and also fresh records reveal more about the desperate strategy to rescue it

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