The American market watchdog sued Elon Musk for disclosing the shares of Twitter
The US market watchdog has accused Elon Musk of failing to disclose his holdings on Twitter, allowing him to buy shares at “artificially low prices”.
The multi-billionaire Tesla boss managed to save $150m (£123m) in share buybacks as a result, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges.
According to SEC regulations, investors whose holdings exceed 5% have 10 days to report that they have exceeded that limit. Musk did so 21 days after the purchase, the filing says.
In a social network postMusk called the SEC “a completely corrupt organization.”
They accused the regulator of wasting time when “there are many real crimes that go unpunished”.
“Musk’s Violation Caused Significant Economic Damage to Investors”. There is an SEC complaint.
In a statement to BBC News, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, described the allegations as “pretend” and a “harassment campaign” against his client.
Twitter’s stock price has risen more than 27 percent since Musk announced the stock purchase on April 4, 2022, the SEC said.
Musk ended up buying Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and has since changed the platform’s name to X.
The complaint was filed by the SEC in federal court in Washington, DC Tuesday.
The lawsuit also asked the court to award Mook “unfair” profits and pay a fine.
SEC chief Gary Gensler announced in November that he would step down when Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20.
It comes after Trump said he planned to fire Mr. Gensler “on day one” of his new administration.
Under Mr. Gensler’s leadership, the SEC clashed with Musk, a close ally of the president-elect.
But long before Mr. Gensler took office, Musk competed with the SEC.
In the year In 2018, the regulator accused Mook of defrauding investors by claiming he “got money” to take Tesla, the electric car company, private.
He later settled the charges, stepping down as chairman of the company’s board and agreeing to accept what he called a Twitter setter — a restriction on what he could write about the company on social media.
