Tesla boss Elon Musk could face a probe from regulators if a plan to take the company private falls flat, it was reported today.
Mr Musk said that he was "considering" taking the electric car firm private prompting regulators to halt trading in the company's stock.
Mr Musk tweeted "Funding secured" on his account causing the price of shares in his company to drastically leap by 11 percent.
He claimed he has the funds to take his company private at $420 (£324) a share. The move is subject to a shareholder vote.
Should Tesla shareholders choose not to go ahead with the deal, Mr Musk could find himself being investigated as to whether he made a false statement that caused the price of his company's stock to rocket by 11 per cent.
The Securities and Exchange Commission can file fraud charges against companies and corporate officers it believes to have made misleading or false statements.
Tesla went public in 2010 and has a current market value of $61 billion (£47 billion). Should he choose to go private with a share price of $420 (£324) , the company would be worth $71 billion (£54 billion).
It's thought that the private offering would ease pressure of Mr Musk after criticism of the state of Tesla's funds.
The 46-year-old said that it was "quite likely" that Tesla would make money by the third quarter.
Mr Musk's twitter account has been under intense scrutiny in recent months.
He used his Twitter account to joke that Tesla was going bankrupt in an April Fool's Day tweet and his stability was called into question last month after he called a British diver who helped rescue children from a Thailand cave a pedophile.
