Elon Musk is facing legal action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims the billionaire entrepreneur failed to promptly disclose his sizable stake in Twitter—now known as X—back in 2022. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., accuses Musk of breaching securities laws by delaying the required filing to disclose his 5% ownership of the social media giant.
The SEC asserts that Musk’s 11-day delay in reporting his initial Twitter purchase allowed him to acquire over $500 million in shares at artificially low prices. By the time Musk revealed his 9.2% stake on April 4, 2022, the price of Twitter’s shares had already surged by 27%, to the benefit of those in the know and at the expense of others.
In response, Musk’s legal team decried the action as part of a long-running “harassment campaign,” dismissing the issue as a trivial paperwork lapse that carries a “nominal penalty” even if proven.
This latest suit adds to Musk’s ongoing legal battles, which include another lawsuit from Twitter shareholders over the delayed disclosure. Musk has previously clashed with the SEC, notably in 2018 over his now-infamous Tesla privatization tweets.
Despite the tensions, Musk’s fortunes remain largely unaffected, with his wealth estimated at $417 billion, a vast fortune built on ventures like Tesla and SpaceX. The SEC lawsuit, coming shortly before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, highlights the continuing scrutiny Musk faces from the regulator.
