In a blockbuster move Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, and is seeking to ban the electric-car maker’s high-profile boss from running any publicly traded company.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the charges are related to Musk’s August announcement that he wanted to take Tesla private for $420 a share. Musk dropped the bombshell idea in an August 7 tweet in which he said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private, but provided no financing details at that time.

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Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford Law School professor of law and business, said that it’s important to note that the SEC’s charges are against Musk, and not Tesla. As such, Grundfest said the “challenge will be to fashion a remedy that punishes Musk, but doesn’t cause harm to Tesla shareholders.”

Grundfest, who is a former SEC commissioner, said the case involving Musk is “unusual” for several reasons, such as the speed in which the SEC levied its charges against Musk, and the fact that cases such as these are often settled at the same time the SEC announces it charges.

Because of that, Grundfest said there are better-than-average odds that Musk may see the inside of a federal courtroom as the SEC pursues the case.

“If Musk is committed to going to trial, that won’t be a pretty picture,” Grundfest said. “Then, it will be about Musk’s mental state.”