SEC sues Musk, alleging he failed to properly disclose Twitter ownership

The SEC filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday, alleging that the billionaire committed securities fraud in 2022 by failing to disclose his ownership on Twitter and purchasing stocks at “artificially low prices.”

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44 billion, and then renamed the social network X. Before the acquisition, he had built up a position in the company of more than 5%, which would have required disclosing his stake to the public.

According to the SEC complaint, Musk concealed that material information, “allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for the shares he purchased after his financial beneficial ownership disclosure expired.”

The SEC had been investigating whether Musk, or anyone else working with him, committed securities fraud in 2022 like the tesla The CEO sold shares in his car company and bolstered his stake in Twitter ahead of his leveraged buyout. Musk saying in a post on

Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said in an emailed statement that the action is an admission by the SEC that they “cannot present a real case.” He added that Musk “has done nothing wrong” and called the lawsuit a “sham” and the result of a “multi-year campaign of harassment,” which culminated in a “single-count complaint.”

Musk is just a week away from a potentially influential role in government as President-elect Donald Trump’s second term begins on January 20. Musk, who was a major financial backer of Trump in the latter stages of the campaign, is set to play a potentially influential role in the government. He will lead an advisory group that will focus in part on reducing regulations, including those affecting Musk’s various companies.

In July, Trump promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. After Trump’s election victory, Gensler announced that he would instead resign from his position.

In a separate civil lawsuit over the Twitter deal, the Oklahoma Firefighters Retirement and Pension System sued Musk, accusing him of deliberately concealing his growing investments in the social network and his intention to buy the company. Lawyers for the pension fund argued that Musk, by not clearly disclosing his investments, had influenced the decisions of other shareholders and put them at a disadvantage.

This story is developing.