Elon Musk sued over failure to disclose stocks before buying Twitter
15 January 2025, 01:44
The US Securities and Exchange Commission says he should have disclosed owning more than 5% of shares before purchasing the social media company.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued billionaire Elon Musk, saying he failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner in early 2022, before buying the social media site.
As a result, the SEC alleges, Mr Musk was able to underpay “by at least 150 million dollars” (£123 million) for shares he bought after he should have disclosed his ownership of more than 5% of Twitter’s shares. Mr Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and later renamed it X.
The tech billionaire started amassing Twitter shares in early 2022, and by March of that year, he owned more than 5%.
At this point, the complaint says, he was required by law to disclose his ownership, but he failed to do so until April 4, 11 days after the report was due.
Representatives for X and Mr Musk did not immediately return a message for comment.
After Mr Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition.
SEC said that in April 2022, it authorised an investigation into whether any securities laws were broken in connection with the purchases of Twitter stock and Mr Musk’s statements and SEC filings related to the company.
Before it filed the lawsuit, the SEC went to court in an attempt to compel Mr Musk to testify as part of an investigation into his purchase of Twitter.
The SEC’s chairman Gary Gensler plans to step down from his post on January 20 and it is not clear if the new administration will continue the lawsuit.
