Axios

Elon Musk is a chaos monkey who creates problems more quickly than he can resolve them.

A perfect case in point: Hours before signing a settlement to pay the SEC $10 million and step down as chairman of Tesla for two years, Musk changed his mind, precipitating an SEC lawsuit and the destruction of more than $7 billion in wealth as Tesla stock promptly plunged on Friday. So then Musk unchanged his mind, agreeing to pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman for three years.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told employees in a companywide email that they "are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong," Bloomberg reports.

The big picture: The email went out hours after Musk settled with federal regulators over his failed take-private plan, agreeing to step down as Tesla's chairman and pay a $20 million penalty. The embattled executive also told employees in the email that if they went "all out" on Sunday — the end of the third quarter — "we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations."

The Securities and Exchange Commission received nearly 150 pages of complaints by Tesla investors regarding Elon Musk's management of the company which were obtained by The Outline through Freedom of Information Act requests.

Why it matters: Ever since Musk's "funding secured" tweet, investors suffered the consequences as Tesla lost over $10 billion in market cap, leading them to write to the SEC calling out Musk's bluff. Since the SEC announced it was charging the Tesla CEO on Thursday with securities fraud, its stock is down almost 14%.

Elon Musk has reached a settlement with federal regulators, which had sued him on Thursday for making misleading material statements. He will get to remain as Tesla's CEO, but must step down as chairman.

The bottom line: This is a smart decision for both Musk and Tesla, as a drawn-out court case would have clouded both of their futures for months to come.

Oil giant BP paid the Mexican government $25.5 million earlier this year to absolve the company of any responsibility for polluting Mexican waters after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010, Nathaniel Janowitz of BuzzFeed News reports after a two year investigation.

Why it matters: The payout is relatively small considering BP spent a total of $60 billion in the aftermath of the spill and paid more than $10 billion to United States fishermen and businesses. None of the $25.5 million payment is going to Mexican citizens, Janowitz writes.