The US stock market regulator has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for hiding information about the acquisition of Twitter shares in 2022, an operation that, according to authorities, would have allowed him to save about $150 million on subsequent purchases. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintains that the businessman breached US law by not declaring in a timely manner that his stake in Twitter exceeded 5% of the capital.
The complaint filed is one of the last actions of the president of the SEC, Gary Gensler, before his next resignation, which will take place before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The movement begins a new confrontation between the organization and the richest man in the world, whom it already accused of stock fraud in 2018 for his statements about Tesla, his electric vehicle company. Although an agreement was reached then, disputes have arisen over its implementation.
As stated in the civil lawsuit filed before a federal court in Washington, to which he has had access andl Financial Times, Musk exceeded the 5% threshold before March 14, 2022, but did not make it public until April 4, eleven days late than the legal deadline. Twitter’s share price shot up more than 27% the day its participation became known.
The events occurred during the purchase operation of Twitter, which Musk would end up acquiring in October 2022 for $44 billion, to later rename it X. “Musk was able to continue buying shares at artificially low prices, saving at least $150 million in shares acquired after the mandatory declaration deadline,” reads the regulatory body’s complaint.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, has downplayed the lawsuit: “As the SEC prepares its departure, it culminates years of harassment against Mr. Musk with a minor complaint that, even if proven, would carry a negligible penalty.” Spiro added that “this action demonstrates that the SEC does not have a strong case, since Mr. Musk has not committed any irregularities.”
The regulatory body began its investigation into stock market operations in April 2022. That same month, it sent a letter to Musk questioning both the delay in submitting the required documentation and his initial declaration of being a passive investor. However, a large number of analysts suspect that the problems of regulators with Musk, among which the SEC is one of the most prominent, will decline as soon as Trump takes office and places people he trusts in management positions.
The lawsuit comes at a time of great change in the American social media landscape, in which it is being considered that Musk could buy another platform. In this case it would be the American subsidiary of TikTok, which is required by law to cut its ties with its Chinese parent company before January 19.
#sues #Musk #purchase #Twitter #Trumps #inauguration
