US markets watchdog sues Elon Musk over Twitter stake disclosure

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, accusing the billionaire of failing to disclose his acquisition of a significant stake in Twitter within the required timeframe.

The regulator alleged that this delay allowed Musk to purchase shares at “artificially low prices,” saving him $150m (£123m).

Under SEC rules, investors must report holdings exceeding 5% within 10 days. The lawsuit claims Musk waited 21 days after crossing the threshold to make his purchase public. According to the SEC, this delay caused “substantial economic harm to investors.”

Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and rebranded it as X, criticised the regulator in a social media post, calling it a “totally broken organisation” that wastes time on lawsuits while “so many actual crimes… go unpunished.”

In a statement to BBC News, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, dismissed the case as a “sham” and “a campaign of harassment” against his client.

The SEC filing, submitted to a federal court in Washington DC, seeks to compel Musk to relinquish “unjust” profits and pay a fine. The regulator also highlighted how Twitter’s share price surged by more than 27% after Musk disclosed his stake on 4 April 2022.

This is not Musk’s first conflict with the SEC. In 2018, the regulator charged him with misleading investors over claims he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. Musk settled the charges, stepped down as Tesla’s board chairman, and agreed to restrictions on his social media activity about the company.

The SEC has faced its own political challenges under its current head, Gary Gensler. President-elect Donald Trump recently vowed to dismiss Gensler on his first day in office.

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