Elon Musk received a “settlement demand” from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over an investigation into whether he may have violated securities laws and regulations, according to an X post by Musk. The letter was allegedly sent by his lawyer Alex Spiro to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The investigation dates back to 2022 when Musk allegedly failed to properly disclose his stake in Twitter, a publicly traded company. Musk had built a sizable position in the company before it became public, but waited too long to file a 13D disclosure, which is required by law for investors building a beneficial ownership stake larger than 5%. The SEC is investigating whether Musk waited too long to disclose that he had accumulated his position.
Musk later disclosed that he had a 9% stake in the company and offered to buy it in its entirety. However, Spiro claims that parts of the investigation could have been politically motivated. The letter also mentions an additional investigation into Neuralink, a company developing computer chips for brain implantation.
This latest development comes after Musk’s run-ins with the SEC, which date back to 2018 when he tweeted about Tesla going private. The SEC fined him $20 million and required his tweets to be vetted by a lawyer. Musk’s lawyers claim that this is part of “more than six years of harassment” from the SEC, and they have reserved all rights in response to the investigation.
Source: https://fortune.com/2024/12/14/elon-musks-lawyer-said-the-sec-demanded-the-tesla-ceo-pay-a-fine-or-face-charges-to-resolve-an-investigation-into-his-purchase-of-twitter