May 31 (Reuters) - A Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit

on Thursday accusing CEO Elon Musk of insider trading when he

sold over $7.5 billion of shares of the electric car maker in

late 2022, saying the billionaire entrepreneur sold the shares

before potentially disappointing production and delivery numbers

were made public.

Shareholder Michael Perry, in the lawsuit filed in Delaware

Chancery Court, said that Tesla's share price plummeted after

the company's fourth-quarter numbers were made public on Jan. 2,

2023, and claimed that Musk "improperly benefited" by about $3

billion in insider profits.

"Musk exploited his position at Tesla, and he breached his

fiduciary duties to Tesla," the lawsuit said, asking the court

to direct Musk to return the profits made from the trades.

According to the lawsuit, Musk sold the shares on various

dates in November 2022 and December 2022.

The lawsuit also accused Tesla's directors of breaching

their fiduciary duty by allowing Musk to sell the shares.

Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters

request for comment.

In the lawsuit, Perry said Musk - who in 2022 said demand

for Tesla's vehicles was "excellent" - found out about the

lower-than-expected numbers mid-November, with his access to

real-time data, and sold his shares before the information was

public.

Following news of vehicle price discounts that sparked

demand concerns and the release of the numbers in January,

Tesla's stock tanked.

"Had (Musk) waited to make these sales until after the

release of material adverse news,... his sales would have netted

him less than 55% of the amounts realized from his November and

December 2022 sales," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit is the latest legal headache for Musk.

It comes as Musk faces opposition from some Tesla

shareholders who are set to vote on June 13 on whether to ratify

his $56 billion pay package, which a Delaware judge voided in

January because she found he improperly controlled the process.

Tesla is incorporated in Delaware.

Musk is also in the middle of a regulatory probe to

determine whether he broke federal securities laws in 2022 when

he bought stock in social media platform Twitter, which he later

renamed X. Musk said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

was trying to "harass" him through unwarranted investigations.

Musk and the top U.S. markets regulator have been in a

years-long feud, dating back to 2018, when he tweeted that he

had "funding secured" to take Tesla private.

A separate shareholder lawsuit has accused Musk of

defrauding X investors by delaying disclosure of his stake in

the social media company to amass shares at lower prices.