Elon Musk was sued on Tuesday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accused the world’s richest person of waiting too long to disclose in 2022 he had amassed a large stake in Twitter, the social media company he later bought.
Advertisement
In a complaint filed in Washington federal court, the SEC said Musk violated federal securities law by waiting 11 days too long to disclose his initial purchase of 5 per cent of Twitter’s common shares.
An SEC rule requires investors to disclose within 10 calendar days, or by March 24, 2022 in Musk’s case, when they cross a 5 per cent ownership threshold.
The SEC said that at the expense of unsuspecting investors, Musk instead bought more than US$500 million of Twitter shares at artificially low prices before finally revealing his purchases on April 4, 2022, by which time he owned a 9.2 per cent stake.
Twitter’s share price rose more than 27 per cent following that disclosure, the SEC said.
Advertisement
Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks to force Musk to pay a civil fine and disgorge profits he did not deserve.