The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Elon Musk in federal court in Washington DC for an alleged violation of market rules, according to legal documents cited by Bloomberg.
The US capital markets regulator (equivalent to the Securities Market Commission in Portugal) alleges that Musk did not disclose in time a large purchase of Twitter Inc. shares. before taking control of the social network – now called X.
The SEC alleges that, by not revealing the purchase of 5% of the common shares of the owner of Twitter, Musk was able to continue acquiring company shares at artificially low prices, allowing savings of at least US$150 million.
In December, Musk wrote on
Elon Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and Space X and has become one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s closest allies, bought Twitter in 2022 for around $22 billion.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, said in a statement that the lawsuit is an “admission” that the SEC does not have the capacity to bring a “real lawsuit” because the businessman “did nothing wrong and everyone sees this farce as it is.” and”.
“At a time when the SEC is backpedaling and ending its mandate, the multi-year harassment campaign against Musk has culminated in the filing of a petty complaint with only one count against Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to having filled out a form – an offense that, even if proven, carries only a symbolic penalty,” Spiro said in a statement.
This is another episode in the long war between Musk and the regulator. In 2018, the businessman reached an agreement with the SEC, having to pay US$20 million and leave his position as chairman of Tesla (remaining only CEO) after a ‘tweet’ in which he claimed that he would delist the company from the US stock exchange. $420 per share and that it had already secured financing, which later turned out to be false.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
