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Elon Musk is fighting for his corporate life

The S.E.C. has accused the Tesla C.E.O. of fraud over his brief effort to take the carmaker private. Mr. Musk reportedly backed out of a settlement with the agency Thursday morning, adamant that he had done nothing wrong.

If the commission convinces a jury that Mr. Musk misled investors, he could be blocked from serving as an executive or director of any public company. That could force him to assume a different position at Tesla. It could also affect his other companies, SpaceX and the Boring Company, were they to go public, and potentially harm their ability to raise money from investors.

The S.E.C. lawsuit, filed on Thursday in federal court, said that Mr. Musk had made a false public statement by tweeting that he had “funding secured” to buy out Tesla investors. Some legal experts think he has a tough battle ahead: Charles Elson of the University of Delaware called the case “as straightforward as you can get.”