After more than two years of investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit Elon Musk has criticized the delay in disclosing the shares he had accumulated in Twitter before announcing his intention to acquire the company in 2022.
The SEC said in a court filing that Musk filed documents with the SEC disclosing his purchase of Twitter stock 11 days after the SEC-mandated deadline. (As the SEC noted in a statement, federal law requires investors to disclose when they acquire more than 5% of a company’s stock.) Regulators say this delay This allowed Musk to buy up even more Twitter stock. Other investors were unaware of his involvement in the company.
from lawsuit:
Mr. Musk was required to disclose his beneficial ownership, but failed to do so and spent more than $500 million to buy additional shares of Twitter common stock. Mr. Musk’s failure to disclose his beneficial ownership in a timely manner allowed him to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices, which included a combination of Twitter common stock and Important, non-public information about Musk’s beneficial ownership of more than 5 percent of the investment had not yet been reflected. the purpose. In total, Mr. Musk underpaid more than $150 million to Twitter investors by purchasing Twitter common stock during this period. Investors who sold Twitter common stock during this period suffered significant financial losses because they sold at an artificially low price.
Regulators have been investigating Musk for years and have long been at odds with Company X’s owners. At one point, the SEC accused Musk of using a “trick” to delay an investigation into his Twitter investment and trying to delay his plans. Last month, Musk shared: copy In a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro accused the regulator of “six years of harassment” targeting Musk. The letter indicated that Musk had rejected a settlement offer from the SEC related to the Twitter investigation.
Musk has also faced criticism from other Twitter investors. In relation to delays in disclosure. however, new york times Gensler is expected to resign after President Donald Trump takes office, so it’s unclear whether the SEC’s latest action will have much significance.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. in a statement to The Times, Spiro called the SEC’s action a “single-count scratchy complaint” and “an admission by the SEC that it cannot actually sue.”
