Elon Musk listens to a speech by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a House Republican Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Allison Robert | getty images
The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a “settlement demand” to tech billionaire Elon Musk social media post On Thursday.
The post included a copy of a letter sent to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler by Musk’s lawyer, Quinn Emanuel partner Alex Spiro.
The letter said the federal agency had pressured Musk to agree to a settlement including a fine within 48 hours or “face charges on multiple counts” in connection with “certain purchases, sales and disclosures of Twitter shares.” .
SEC has been Test Did Musk, or anyone else working with him, commit securities fraud in 2022 Tesla The CEO sold shares in his car company Tesla and increased a stake in Twitter, ahead of a leveraged buyout of the social network now known as X.
“Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” Musk said in a post shared on X late Thursday night along with an emoji showing a face holding back tears and a copy of Spiro’s letter.
In another post on Thursday, Musk wrote that he, “Asked @Grok to draw a picture of @GaryGensler. I think that’s very appreciated!” That post contained an AI-generated image depicting the SEC chair as a snail-like creature wearing a suit.
A person directly familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, told CNBC that the SEC sent Musk a settlement offer in recent days, but gave him more than 48 hours to respond. Time was given. ,
If the SEC can’t reach a settlement agreement with Musk, charges aren’t necessarily the next step, this person said. When the agency cannot reach settlement agreements with defendants, enforcement staff sometimes issue Wells notices before making recommendations to agency commissioners, who then decide whether to file charges.
Gensler, Musk and Spiro did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Musk’s lawyers argued in their letter that the SEC has engaged in “more than six years of harassment” of Musk through investigative activity. That includes reopening an investigation into the billionaire’s health tech venture Neuralink this week.
Spiro also wrote that he was personally subpoenaed by SEC staff but refused to comply. He accused the agency of an “improperly motivated campaign against Mr. Musk and individuals and companies associated with him” and demanded to know whether the White House or the SEC had directed this action against his client.
In 2018, SEC Was accused After the civil securities fraud, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share and that he had “funding secured” to do so. No take-private deal ever came to fruition.
Musk and Tesla each paid a $20 million fine to the agency, and entered into an amended settlement agreement that required Musk to temporarily resign his role as chairman of the board at Tesla. Since that time, Musk has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the SEC.
The Tesla, SpaceX and X leaders also became Republican mega-donors in recent years, and helped put President-elect Donald Trump back in the White House.
In July this year, Trump vowed to fire the SEC chairman. After Trump’s election victory, Gensler announced Instead he will resign from his post.
in a different civil case In connection with the Twitter deal, which is the focus of a recent SEC investigation, the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System sued Musk, accusing him of intentionally hiding his progressive investment in the social network and his intent to buy the company.
Lawyers for the pension fund argued that by failing to clearly disclose his investment in Twitter and his intention to buy it, Musk influenced the decisions of other shareholders and put them at a loss.
Watch: Elon Musk asks court to stop OpenAI from being converted for profit
