The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, has said it was suing tech billionaire, Elon Musk, over alleged failure to disclose in a timely manner his ownership of more than 5 per cent of Twitter stakes before taking over the social media platform company in 2022.
The SEC alleges that Trump’s close confidant began buying up Twitter shares in early 2022, and crossed the 5 per cent mark on March 14, 2022.
SEC maintained that by law, Musk ought to have publicly declared within 10 calendar days, that he already held 9 per cent of the company before his take over.
According to the agency, Musk only made the announcement on April 4, which was 11 days late.
The SEC filing observed that Twitter’s share price jumped by 27 per cent following the disclosure.
The agency analysed Musk’s purchases and noted that he underpaid by at least 150 million dollars for his purchases of Twitter common stock in the period.
The suit alleges that shareholders who sold their shares to him during that time would have suffered financial losses.
The SEC is therefore requesting that the Tech billionaire and Trump’s close confidant repay the sum – plus an additional penalty.
Meanwhile, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, has countered that the tech billionaire had done nothing wrong.
In a statement, Spiro also spoke of a multi-year campaign of harassment by the SEC against Musk.
Musk bought the social media platform Twitter in October 2022 for 44 billion dollars and renamed it X.
