The SEC filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday, alleging the billionaire committed securities fraud in 2022 by failing to disclose he had amassed an active stake in Twitter, a secrecy that allowed him to buy shares at "artificially low prices."
The SEC had been investigating whether Musk, or anyone else working with him, committed securities fraud in 2022 around the Twitter disclosures.
An SEC spokesperson declined to comment "beyond the litigation release and the complaint, which is, literally, an actual case brought by the SEC."
The SEC said in Tuesday's complaint that Musk crossed the 5% ownership mark in his Twitter ownership in March 2022, and would have been required to disclose his holdings by March 24.
He "underpaid" Twitter shareholders by over $150 million during that period, according to the SEC.
Soon thereafter, Musk tried to back out, alleging that Twitter was misstating the number of "bots" on its service.
In the latest complaint, the SEC didn't allude to Musk's prior civil securities fraud charges or settlement agreement. »
