The Biden-Harris administration’s U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) announced a lawsuit on Tuesday against Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The SEC announced in a Tuesday press release that it had” an action” against Musk over allegations that he “failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report with the Commission after acquiring beneficial ownership of more than 5 % of the outstanding shares of Twitter, Inc.common stock.” The SEC claimed that Musk’s inability to file a report with the SEC in time for his purchase of X, formerly Twitter, in 2022 resulted in an underpayment of at least$ 150 million.
In Tuesday’s hit launch, the SEC accused Musk of violating the “beneficial rights monitoring needs” that fall under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
According to The Associated Press, Musk began buying stocks of Twitter in 2022 and was already holding more than 5 % of the stock by the end of that year. The Biden-Harris government’s SEC claimed that Musk was officially required to disclose his interest in Twitter, but, the SEC said he did not report his possession until 11 days after he was required to.
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” After Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report by March 24, 2022, he purchased more than$ 500 million worth of Twitter common stock between March 25, 2022 and April 1, 2022″, the SEC wrote. According to Musk,” as alleged, because he failed to timely file a beneficial ownership statement with the SEC, he was able to purchase these purchases of Twitter common property from the unsuspecting people, who had not yet priced in the unknown material details of Musk’s beneficial ownership of more than 5 % of Twitter common stock and investment purpose,” according to the alleged story.
In response to the SEC complaint, Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, stated to Fox Business that the Biden-Harris administration’s action on Tuesday was” an entrance by the SEC that they cannot take an actual circumstance– because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and anyone sees this farce as what it is.”
Spiro continued,” As the SEC retreats and leaves office, the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tack complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13 ( d ) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty.”
In a Wednesday post on X, Musk tweeted,” Lawfare needs to stop. Instead of fighting real crime, under the Democrats, citizens are prosecuted, while serious criminals run free”.
After SEC Chairman Gary Gensler leaves his position, it’s not yet clear whether the SEC will proceed with the lawsuit against Musk under the Trump administration.
