Elon Musk has revealed that he obtained a “settlement demand” from the Gary Gensler-run SEC in connection together with his Twitter takeover — the newest in a long-running public feud between the billionaire Tesla boss and the company.
Musk posted a letter from his lawyer, Alex Spiro, to Gensler on Thursday stating that the billionaire had been instructed to “agree inside 48 hours to both settle for a financial cost or face prices on quite a few counts.”
“Oh Gary, how may you do that to me?” Musk wrote in an X put up that contained a replica of the letter.
In the letter, Spiro mentioned the demand was associated to “sure purchases, gross sales and disclosures of Twitter shares” and was the newest signal of what he known as “greater than six years of harassment of Mr. Musk by the Commission.” Spiro additionally disclosed that the SEC has “reopened” a probe into Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink.
The SEC despatched Musk a settlement provide on Tuesday, however prolonged the deadline till this coming Monday after it obtained a request for extra time, a supply acquainted with the scenario instructed Reuters.
If the 2 sides aren’t capable of attain an settlement, the company may concern a “Wells discover” forward of potential enforcement motion, CNBC reported, citing a supply acquainted with the scenario.
Spiro recommended that the SEC’s newest actions in opposition to Musk could have been politically motivated. The lawyer additionally mentioned he had refused a requirement to provide testimony in regards to the scenario.
“We demand to know who directed these actions — whether or not it was you or the White House,” Spiro wrote to Gensler.
In a separate put up, Musk shared an AI-generated photograph depicting Gensler as a snail-like creature sporting a go well with.
“Asked @Grok to attract an image of @GaryGensler. Very flattering, I believe!” Musk wrote.
Musk additionally focused the SEC in one other put up, writing that it was “simply one other weaponized establishment doing political soiled work.”
“It is the coverage of the SEC to conduct investigations on a confidential foundation to protect the integrity of its investigative course of,” an company spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. “The SEC subsequently doesn’t touch upon the existence or nonexistence of a doable investigation.”
The SEC has been investigating Musk over his actions in 2022 throughout his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which he has since renamed X.
Musk revealed in April 2022 that he had bought a 9% stake in Twitter.
The transfer drew scrutiny from the SEC, which questioned why he hadn’t disclosed the inventory purchase inside 10 days of crossing a 5% possession threshold as required by legislation.
The SEC additionally cracked down on Musk in 2018 over the notorious episode by which he claimed to have “funding secured” to take Tesla personal at $420 per share.
The deal by no means materialized.
Musk ultimately agreed to a settlement that required him and Tesla to every pay $20 million fines and for him to step down as chairman of the agency.
The billionaire additionally entered a consent decree by which his tweets and different public communications needed to be pre-approved by firm attorneys.
After years of clashing with federal regulators beneath the Biden administration, Musk emerged as a serious donor adviser to President-elect Donald Trump in the course of the 2024 election cycle.
Trump has tapped Musk and fellow ally Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, which is tasked with slashing the federal finances and pointless laws.
Investors have taken Musk’s shut ties to Trump as a bullish signal for his varied companies. Musk’s private internet value has swelled above $400 billion — the best determine on file.
Gensler — who has recurrently clashed with the tech trade over his harsh crackdown on cryptocurrencies — mentioned he would resign as SEC chair following Trump’s election win.
Trump has nominated Paul Atkins, a staunch ally of the crypto sector, to exchange Gensler.
With Post wires
