Elon Musk loses bid to dismiss SEC lawsuit over Twitter stake | Latest Tech News
A federal choose on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk’s bid to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claimed he waited too long to disclose his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022.
Washington, DC-based US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said Musk’s arguments, including that the SEC overreached in order to punish him for criticizing it, didn’t warrant dismissal.
Lawyers for Musk didn’t immediately reply to requests for remark. An SEC spokesperson declined to remark.
Elon Musk was sued by Wall Street regulators over his late disclosure of his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022 AP
The SEC sued Musk in January 2025, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5% Twitter stake let him buy more than $500 million of shares at low costs. It needs Musk to repay the $150 million he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting traders, plus a civil fantastic.
Musk has called the delay inadvertent. He also said the SEC case amounted to “selective enforcement” of federal securities legal guidelines, designed to goal him for criticism of “government overreach” that is protected speech under the Constitution’s First Amendment. Musk also called a $150 million payout an extreme fantastic that violates the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, dwarfing the $100,000 penalty the SEC has sought in related instances.
Judge cites congressional intent to shield traders
The SEC requires shareholders to disclose within 10 calendar days when they attain 5% possession in order to shield traders who would possibly in any other case be saved in the darkish and promote their own stock.
In a 45-page choice, Sooknanan said that requirement displays the intent of Congress to stop traders from shopping for shares cheaply while they pursue control of a company.
The SEC requires shareholders to disclose within 10 calendar days when they attain 5% possession in order to shield traders who would possibly in any other case be saved in the darkish and promote their own stock. REUTERS
“The court does not doubt that Mr. Musk would prefer to avoid having to disclose information that might raise stock prices while he makes a play for corporate control,” the choose wrote. “But the balance Congress struck … does not violate the First Amendment.”
Musk has long feuded with the SEC.
In 2018, the regulator sued Musk after he said on Twitter he would possibly take his electric car company Tesla non-public and had secured funding.
He settled that case by paying a $20 million civil fantastic, agreeing to let Tesla attorneys review some Twitter posts in advance, and giving up his function as Tesla’s chairman.
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and renamed it X. AFP via Getty Images
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and renamed it X.
On Monday, Musk said his rocket and satellite tv for pc maker SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence company xAI, whose property embrace X. The merger created the world’s most beneficial non-public company, value about $1.25 trillion.
Musk is value $851.6 billion according to Forbes magazine, more than triple the $277.5 billion fortune of Google co-founder Larry Page, who ranks second.
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