Because Tesla, as a company, is actually majority owned by the shareholders that make up 80+% of the company.

A very small move of the SEC can destroy those investors chances of ever being paid back.

So that during an economic downturn he can get a government bailout, blaming any failures on externalities like the "unfair" SEC.

It's the same reason for making the company take on too much debt. When you're big the government won't let you fail. That's the belief anyway.