The American stock market policeman is suing Elon Musk for his buyback of Twitter shares

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued billionaire Elon Musk, accusing him of failing to disclose on time “its acquisition of more than 5% of Twitter’s outstanding common stock in 2022”before purchasing the platform. Which allowed him to buy the platform from a “artificially low prices”according to the SEC.

The SEC says this omission allowed Elon Musk to “not to pay at least 150 million dollars” (145.6 million euros).

Elon Musk began buying shares of Twitter in early 2022, and by March of that year he already owned more than 5% of the company. The SEC says that at that time, the head of Tesla and SpaceX was required by law to disclose his stake, but that he did not do so on April 4, 2022, 11 days after the date on which he had to make his statement.

Elon Musk, who fully acquired Twitter in October 2022 and later renamed it X, has yet to publicly address the issue.

Elon Musk signed a deal in April 2022 to acquire Twitter, but he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him, forcing him to make the acquisition that cost the company The richest man in the world, according to Forbes, 44 billion dollars (42.7 billion euros).

The SEC says that beginning in April 2022, it has authorized an investigation into whether any securities laws were violated in connection with Musk’s purchase of Twitter stock, as well as his statements and documents filed with the SEC about the company.

In October 2024, the SEC had already filed a complaint against the billionaire, in order to force him to testify as part of an investigation into the acquisition of Twitter, one of the many legal cases linked to this controversial takeover. The Authority had affirmed that he had not responded to a hearing whose date had already been postponed several times. A federal judge then ordered the billionaire to provide explanations to the SEC in February 2025.

The current chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, is expected to leave his post on January 20, the date of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, of whom he is a close ally.

It is not yet clear whether the new administration – which Musk has been a part of since Trump tapped him to head a new “Government Efficiency” department – will pursue the legal action.