Musk won't be reined in

Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed the idea that the company's new chairwoman can exert control over his behaviour.

Robyn Denholm, an Australian telecommunications executive, was appointed chairwoman of Tesla's board last month, replacing Musk as part of as part of a securities fraud settlement with U.S. government regulators.

But Musk said "it's not realistic" to expect Denholm to watch over his actions because he remains the electric car company's largest shareholder.

"It's not realistic in the sense that I am the largest shareholder in the company," Musk said in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," broadcast Sunday evening, adding that a large percentage of shareholders support him and all he needs is about one-third of them.

"I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want," he said.

Musk, who owns about 20 per cent of Tesla, gave up the chairman role under a settlement with the Securities Exchange Commission, which had charged the CEO with misleading investors in August with a tweet that said he had "funding secured" for taking the company private.

The SEC settlement also required the company to vet Musk's tweets and other comments about the company before they are released to the public. Musk also shrugged off that provision, saying none of his tweets have been censored so far and the company does not review his posts to determine beforehand whether they could potentially affect the company's stock price.

"I guess we might make some mistakes. Who knows?" Musk said.

Musk said he does not respect the SEC, but when asked if he would obey the settlement, he said: "Because I respect the justice system."

After the interview was aired, Tesla said in a statement that the company is complying with the SEC settlement. The part that requires pre-approval of communications that could affect the stock price technically must be in place by Dec. 28, the company said.