Elon Musk says the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is demanding he pay a penalty for not disclosing his purchases of Twitter stock before buying the platform in 2022. In a letter, Musk’s lawyer claims the demand is “misguided” and won’t intimidate him.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. A lawsuit alleges that he failed to disclose his stake until after it nearly doubled. This delay supposedly hurt investors who sold shares before Musk revealed his position, causing their losses.
The SEC has not commented on the letter or confirmed whether they’ve issued a demand to Musk. The agency typically conducts investigations confidentially. Musk and Tesla faced similar fines in 2018 for tweets that did not materialize as promised.
Musk’s involvement with the SEC dates back to 2018, when he was fined $20 million over false tweets about Tesla taking the company private. He has since challenged some of these settlement terms, including a provision requiring his postings reviewed by a Tesla attorney. The Supreme Court rejected Musk’s appeal without comment in 2020.
As the outgoing SEC chairman Gary Gensler steps down on January 20, President Joe Biden’s successor Donald Trump is expected to nominate Paul Atkins as chair.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/musk-sec-twitter-stock-purchases-penalty-letter-0eddad3db779c5b07988d7b9886b10b2