Elon Musk was sued for delay in disclosing information

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC, the SEC said Musk violated federal securities laws by waiting 11 days to announce the first transaction with Twitter stock (currently X). At that time, he bought 5% of the shares. According to SEC regulations, investors must announce transactions within 10 days if they reach the 5% share threshold.

The SEC said that because he did not disclose it, Musk was then able to buy more Twitter shares at a cheap price. By the time he made this public, the billionaire owned 9.2% of the shares. After the above information, Twitter shares increased by 27%.

The SEC wants Musk to pay a civil penalty and return illegal profits. In October 2022, Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and changed its name to X.

Alex Spiro – Elon Musk’s lawyer said that the SEC’s lawsuit is the culmination of a “years-long harassment campaign” against his client. He asserted that Musk did nothing wrong.

Musk’s conflict with the SEC has lasted for many years. The highlight was the tongue-in-cheek incident on Twitter in 2018, when Musk announced that he had gathered enough money to buy Tesla. Afterwards, he was fined $20 million by the SEC, had to resign as Chairman of Tesla and agreed to let Tesla lawyers preview the social media post.

The SEC’s move came 6 days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Musk has been one of Mr. Trump’s close allies recently, greatly supporting his election campaign.

This is not the only Twitter-related lawsuit Musk currently faces. He is also being sued by Twitter shareholders in Manhattan court, also for being slow in releasing information.

Musk is currently the richest person in the world with a fortune of $417 billion, according to Forbes. He runs many companies, including electric car company Tesla, social network X, aerospace company SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI.