“I, Edward Niedermeyer, never did own, nor do I own, nor do I plan to own, Tesla Motors shares, puts, calls, or any derivatives that would gain in value through price swings in Tesla Motors stock. I never did short, nor do I currently short, nor do I plan to ever short Tesla Motors stock. I have no financial interest whatsoever in the success or failure of Tesla Motors.”
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on June 13, 2016
Edward Niedermeyer
“I, Bertel Schmitt, never did own, nor do I own, nor do I plan to own, Tesla Motors shares, puts, calls, or any derivatives that would gain in value through price swings in Tesla Motors stock. I never did short, nor do I currently short, nor do I plan to ever short Tesla Motors stock. I have no financial interest whatsoever in the success or failure of Tesla Motors.”
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on June 13, 2016
Bertel Schmitt
In recent days, we, the editors of Daily Kanban have come under vicious attacks, online and offline. The thrust of these attacks is that we somehow would gain from the downfall of Tesla or its shares, because otherwise, the contrived logic goes, we would not have written stories like this one. We have reason to believe that these accusations are inspired by an official blog post of Tesla Motors, which insinuates that Ed Niedermeyer and his “associates have something financial to gain by negatively affecting Tesla’s stock price.” Elon Musk never had to look long for people who read, and then present his often sibylline utterings as facts, and as a call to brutally attack independent journalists. Once devotees hang on your every word, you as their spiritual leader become responsible for their actions.
We, the editors of Daily Kanban, make this declaration to establish the facts that have been missing. We expect Tesla to retract these insinuations. Alternatively, Mr. Musk and his surrogates can sign similar declarations, and we will establish who profits from TSLA price swings, and who does not. These declarations are also made as a service to those who have publicly expressed their desire to put us in jail: Perjury can result in incarceration.
As Tesla said in a blog post previous to the one above, “this is not a legal issue,” at least not at this point in time. “It is a moral issue.” A company with such high morals should not sink to the levels of inflaming thugs to stomp out independent journalism. Tesla’s declared mission is to “change the world.” We do not want to live in a changed world reigned by bullies, or in a world without a free press.
