SEC sued Musk for low-price acquisition of Twitter for 'securities fraud', FOX: strong political maneuvering

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Musk of violating the Securities Exchange Act by failing to disclose more than 5% of his Twitter stake in a timely manner. The lawsuit was filed a few days before Trump took office, causing doubts from the outside world, and Fox Business reporters pointed out that there was a strong political manipulation behind it. (Synopsis: Musk DOGE thinks "SEC is waste" wants to fire? Response to Gensler: I heard that you go in one day a month) (Background supplement: Trump announced the appointment of Musk to lead the government efficiency department DOGE: dismantling the bureaucracy, Shiba Inu LOGO exposed) The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued heavy news yesterday (14) to file a lawsuit against Musk, the world's richest man! Since the lawsuit is only days before Trump officially becomes president, many experts believe that this move has obvious political implications. SEC sues Musk: latency discloses investment in Twitter According to SEC Announcement 26219, issued yesterday, the SEC alleges that Musk failed to file a beneficial ownership report with the SEC in a timely manner after acquiring more than 5% of Twitter's (now known as X) shares of issuance, violating beneficial ownership reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and allegedly committing securities fraud. The SEC's complaint alleges that this failure to report in a timely manner could allow Musk to purchase Twitter common stock from unsuspecting members of the public at artificially low prices without disclosing his beneficial ownership and investment purposes, causing these investors to suffer losses of at least $150 million. In addition, during the period during which Musk failed to report in a timely manner (March 25, 2022 to April 1, 2022), investors who sold Twitter common stock sold at artificially low prices, resulting in significant financial losses. According to SEC regulations, investors are required to disclose within 10 days of holding more than 5%. However, Musk only disclosed the fact on April 4, 2022, 11 days late. After this announcement, Twitter shares rose 27%. The SEC filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that Musk violated Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 13d-1 thereunder, seeking a permanent injunction against Musk, recovery of ill-gotten gains and his interests, and civil penalties. Musk's lawyer: The SEC punished inappropriately In response, Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro responded that the action is "an admission that the SEC cannot present an 'actual case'" because Musk "did not do anything wrong, and everyone can see that this is an eyewash." "The SEC's years of harassment against Musk culminated in a single Section 13(d) charge against Musk for failing to file a form — and even if the charges are founded, the violation will only face a symbolic penalty," Spiro said in a statement. According to Bloomberg, since 2022, the SEC has been investigating Musk's investment in Twitter, asking him to explain why he failed to disclose his holdings within the stipulated period. SEC lawyers last December asked Musk to pay more than $200 million to settle allegations of undisclosed Twitter investments. In response, Spiro emphasized that the SEC did not accuse Musk of intentionally deceiving or misleading investors. In addition, he criticized the SEC's proposed $200 million fine as "unreasonable and punitive," noting that in similar cases, the SEC typically imposes a reasonable fine of less than $100,000. Musk slammed the SEC's legal action as exacerbating a long-standing antagonism between Musk and the SEC. Musk responded today: "The SEC is a completely broken institution that wastes time on such trivial matters without punishing many real crimes." Totally broken organization. They spend their time on shit like this when there are so many actual crimes that go unpunished. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2025 Fox Business Reporter: Political manipulation means a lot On the other hand, Musk has recently become one of Trump's key supporters and core advisers, and together with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, he was commissioned by Trump to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is committed to developing a comprehensive government cost-reduction plan. Therefore, a few days before Trump took office, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk, which was widely regarded as politically motivated. Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino tweeted: "The SEC had almost all the information about the entire case two years ago, but why is it filing a lawsuit now, specifically targeting a Trump adviser, and doing it on the eve of the inauguration?" Charles went on to point out that the SEC's prosecution is politically significant: most mainstream media will interpret this as a manifestation of the independence of SEC employees; But this is not the case. If they really had no political intent, the case should have been filed within six months of the incident and settled with a minor penalty. But now it has become a political topic. Charles added that people familiar with the SEC said the action was a clear provocation by the Democratic majority against Musk and Trump's nomination of Paul Atkins, the new chairman of the SEC. It's clearly a divisive ploy to pit law enforcement and the White House against each other over such a small-scale breach. Originally, the case could have been resolved quickly by Musk paying a small fine and a settlement that "neither acknowledges nor denies", but now it has been used to intensify the confrontation between the SEC and the White House. Btw the @SECGov knew just about everything in this case 2 years ago. Why trotted it out now particularly against a Trump adviser on the eve of the inaugural. Most of the MSM will couch this as an example of SEC staff independence; but it’s not really. If they were truly non... — Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 15, 2025 Related reports Jensen Huang praised Musk: Amazing breakthroughs in AI fields such as self-driving and robotics, and there are huge advantages in collecting real-world data Want to control ChatGPT? Horse...