Tech billionaire, Elon Musk has been sued by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission, which claims that he violated the law when he bought Twitter stock in 2022.
U.S securities said in a filing published Tuesday that “Defendant Elon Musk failed to timely file with the SEC a beneficial ownership report disclosing his acquisition of more than five percent of the outstanding shares of Twitter’s common stock in March 2022, in violation of the federal securities laws.”
According to the SEC, the omission allowed Musk, the world’s richest man and a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, to continue buying shares at “artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due.”
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Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, described the petition as a “sham” that completed a “multi-year campaign of harassment” against the entrepreneur.
Musk’s role at the social network has been marked by numerous controversies and led to various legal actions on the part of investors, former employees and companies that had contracts with Twitter, now called X.
Shareholders, have filed a lawsuit against Musk, accusing him of disclosing his five percent stake in Twitter too late, after the deadline set by the SEC.
