The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeks to ban Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk from serving in that role in a lawsuit alleging that Musk misled investors when he said on Twitter that he was considering taking the car maker private.

“Neither celebrity status or reputation as a technological innovator provide an exception to the securities laws,” the SEC’s co-director of enforcement, Steve Peikin, said at a news conference late Thursday.

A 23-page complaint filed in a New York federal court includes a detailed account and timeline of the series of events preceding Musk’s August tweet that he was investigating taking Tesla TSLA, +5.04% private at $420 a share and that he had secured the funding to do so. In fact, the SEC says in the complaint, Musk had not secured or confirmed funding from any source to provide any amount of funding, and intentionally misled investors with that and subsequent tweets on the subject.

Tesla shares plunged 13% in premarket trade Friday, extended losses suffered in Thursday’s after-hours session.

Musk said in a statement that he was “saddened and disappointed” by the SEC’s action.

“I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors,” the statement says. “Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way.”

A joint statement issued late Thursday from Tesla and its Board of Directors backed Musk.

“Tesla and the board of directors are fully confident in Elon, his integrity, and his leadership of the company, which has resulted in the most successful U.S. auto company in over a century. Our focus remains on the continued ramp of Model 3 production and delivering for our customers, shareholders and employees,” the statement said.

Musk may have pulled out of a deal at the last moment. Citing sources, The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC had a settlement with Musk all set Thursday morning when his lawyers called to say they weren’t interested. The SEC then hustled to file its complaint, those sources said.

In the lawsuit, the SEC alleges by the time Musk tweeted about taking the company private, he had not secured funding in a discussion with a representative of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund before the tweet. Musk has said that the company has been in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund since early last year.

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The SEC complaint says that Musk attended several meetings in 2017 with fund representatives and met with several for about 30 to 45 minutes in the evening of July 31, during which they talked in general terms about taking the company private.

The SEC says in the complaint that the discussion lacked “the most fundamental terms of a going-private transaction” and that it was the only time Musk and the Saudis talked about taking the company private. He did not talk with the fund again until after he tweeted that he planned to take the company private at $420.

“Musk knew that he had never discussed a going-private transaction at $420 per share with any potential funding source, had done nothing to investigate whether it would be possible for all current investors to remain with Tesla as a private company via a ‘special purpose fund,’ and had not confirmed support of Tesla’s investors for a potential going-private transaction,” the lawsuit filing reads. “He also knew that he had not satisfied numerous additional contingencies, the resolution of which was highly uncertain, when he unequivocally declared, ‘Only reason why this is not certain is that it’s contingent on a shareholder vote.’ ”

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The suit also includes a number of Musk’s statements on Twitter about investors who were shorting Telsa stock, including a June 2018 tweet where he predicted that shorts would have about three weeks before “their short position” explodes. Before tweeting about considering a go-private deal at a much higher price than the going rate for Tesla stock, Musk had promised the “short burn of the century comin soon.”

Aside from fines and restitution to investors hurt by Musk’s tweets, the SEC is also asking for Musk to be removed as Tesla’s CEO and banned from holding a corporate officer or director position at any public company. At the news conference, Peikin said that Musk would remain Tesla’s CEO until the final judgment or the company makes a different decision.

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A previous report suggested that Musk is also being investigated for potential criminal charges for his tweets by the Department of Justice. Musk’s tweets have also led to a defamation lawsuit from a man who participated in the rescue of a Thai soccer team from a cave, after he called him a “pedo” on Twitter Inc.’s TWTR, +1.62% social-media service.