SpaceX Inc. and Tesla Inc. founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is in serious trouble after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed court charges that alleges that he is in contempt of court for violating a previous settlement.

Musk, who self-identifies as bipolar and often lashes out on Twitter, has caught the ire of the SEC over a tweet that claimed Tesla would make 500,000 cars in 2019.

The SEC claims in its filing that Musk “did not receive pre-approval by the agency” to publish data that involved information that is “material to the company or investors.”

The contempt of court charge relates to a previous settlement between Musk and the SEC over an Aug. 7 tweet in which Musk falsely claimed that he had funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 per share.

Under the agreement Musk stood down as chairman of Tesla and agreed that additional controls and procedures should be put in place to “oversee Musk’s communications.” Musk, in tweeting Tesla manufacturing data, is alleged to have broken the agreement.

Worse still, Musk subsequently corrected himself, saying that he “meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.”

While a tweet here or there may not seem serious, if proven the SEC allegation of contempt could see Musk forced out of Tesla and SpaceX as well.

The SEC initially demanded that Musk be prohibited from serving as an officer or director of a publicly held company. Now that Musk has allegedly broken the settlement, his company ban is back on the table.

“While Musk claims to ‘respect the justice system,’ his deliberate indifference to compliance with this Court’s final judgment indicates otherwise,” the SEC argues.

Tesla shares dropped as much as 5 percent on the news, with investors concerned that Musk may be barred from running the company he founded.

The commission’s action “is a fairly extreme step, but it is unsurprising, given that Musk seems so unconcerned not only about the agreement but about the policies behind the securities law,” Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School told the New York Times. “This is not an innocuous tweet. Insiders have to be careful about revealing misleading information to the public.”

Photo: Jurvetson/Flickr