The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk Tuesday, though the suit may not have a future after the agency—and the country—gets new leadership next week. The lawsuit filed in Washington, DC, accuses Musk of ignoring a deadline in early 2022 to disclose that he had amassed a stake of more than 5% in Twitter, Bloomberg reports. During the 11 days Musk was required to disclose ownership but failed to do so, "he spent more than $500 million purchasing additional shares of Twitter common stock," the lawsuit states. "Because Musk failed to timely disclose his beneficial ownership, he was able to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices."
The failure to disclose his holdings after he passed the 5% threshold "allowed him to underpay by at least $150 million," the lawsuit states. After he disclosed his stake on April 5, 2022, the company's stock jumped more than 27%. The SEC has been investigating Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter for years, and in recent weeks, Musk has been taunting the regulator over the possibility of filing a lawsuit, the New York Times reports. The lawsuit is likely to be one of the SEC's "more contentious final acts" as chair Gary Gensler prepares to depart, the Times notes.
The lawsuit "seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties" for the securities violations, the SEC said in a news release. Gensler plans to resign Jan. 20 and it's not clear whether the Trump administration will proceed with the legal action against a close Trump ally, the AP reports. Musk lawyer Alex Spiro called the lawsuit a "sham" and said Musk had done nothing wrong, reports Bloomberg. "As the SEC retreats and leaves office, the SEC's multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tak complaint against Mr. Musk," he said in a statement. (More Elon Musk stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
