Elon Musk made a remark about DOGE’s cost-cutting potential during a live stream with the CEO of Stagwell Inc. Mark Penn.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week filed a lawsuit against X, the former owner of Twitter Elon Musk due to the purchase of shares in Twitter in 2022.
Musk failed to disclose in a timely manner that he had purchased more than 5% of Twitter’s common stock in March of that year, the complaint said.
The SEC said this allowed Musk to continue buying Twitter stock at an artificially low price, and he paid less than $150 million.
An SEC rule requires investors who own more than 5% of a stock to disclose their stake within 10 days, but the agency alleged in the complaint that Musk did not disclose this until 11 days after the deadline, when he already owned 9%.
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The US Securities and Exchange Commission this week filed a lawsuit against X, the former owner of Twitter, Elon Musk for buying shares in Twitter in 2022. (by Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Twitter shares immediately rose after his announcement.
Musk began buying Twitter in April 2022. completing the sale that October.
He paid $44 billion for the social media platform.
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Musk failed to disclose in a timely manner that he had purchased more than 5% of Twitter’s common stock in March of that year, the complaint said. (Photo illustration: Muhammed Selim Korkutata / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)
His lawyer, Alex Spiro, told FOX Business in a statement: “Today’s action is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring a real case — because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this fraud for what it is.”
He added: “As the SEC steps back and forth, the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a Section 13(d) complaint against Mr. Musk for alleged administrative failure to file a single form—a violation that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty.”
This is the SEC’s third lawsuit against Trump. Their first was due to a 2018 tweet Musk posted, falsely claiming he was considering taking Tesla private for $420 a share. As part of that settlement, he was forced to step down as president of Tesla.
The SEC also sued Musk in 2023 to try to get him to testify about his Twitter purchases, which he did a year later.
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The current lawsuit is also likely to be one of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s last moves in his position as the Trump administration arrives in less than a week.
Reuters contributed to this report.
