(Reuters) - Elon Musk has no plans to relinquish his dual role as chairman and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc, he said in an interview with the New York Times on Thursday.
Musk, who is under intense scrutiny by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is facing lawsuits over his tweets last week about taking Tesla private, said he saw the tweet as an attempt at transparency, according to the paper.
The 47-year-old billionaire also said no one had seen or reviewed it before he posted it, according to the NYT.
The SEC has sent subpoenas to Tesla regarding Musk's plan to take the company private and his statement that funding was "secured".
Musk said in a blog on Tesla's website on Monday he was in discussions with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund over Tesla take-private deal and other potential backers but that financing was not yet nailed down.
Another possibility under consideration is that SpaceX, Musk's space transportation company, will help bankroll the Tesla privatization and will take an ownership stake in the carmaker, the NYT said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
