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Stocking up: Elon Musk to buy $20m in Tesla shares as manufacturing boss resigns

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Tesla chief executive Elon Musk will buy $20m (£15.2m) of Tesla stock in the next open trading session, a filing revealed today, after a judge approved the firm's settlement deal with the US securities watchdog.

The filing said the share purchase will be "separate and apart from the settlement", which saw both Tesla and Elon Musk be fined $20m each by the Securities and Exchange Commission in September.

Additionally Tesla's vice president of manufacturing Gilbert Passin has resigned, according to sources reported by Business Insider. His departure follows that of several other executives, including chief accounting officer Dave Morton who left after just a month in September citing discomfort with Tesla's notoriety and pace of work.

The regulator had filed securities fraud charges against Musk and Tesla over a series of tweets posted by the billionaire on 7 August, in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share with "funding secured".

Read more: Tesla shares rise as SEC settlement gets nod of approval from US judge

The SEC argued that Musk had not cleared such a decision with the board, sufficiently secured funding for the transaction nor put much thought into the chosen price of $420, which he had settled on after rounding up a 20 per cent premium of $419 due to the number's significance in marijuana culture.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the decision.

As part of the settlement, Musk will remain as Tesla's chief executive and on its board but must step down from his role as Tesla chairman by 6 November. 

Tesla's share price fell 1.6 per cent as the news broke this afternoon, having risen 2 per cent earlier in the day.

The news followed an announcement this morning that Tesla had signed a deal with Shanghai authorities for a plot of land which will house its first overseas Gigafactory. The electric carmaker had previously said it will raise from Asian debt markets to fund development of the factory, which will cost around $2bn.