Tech billionaire Elon Musk settles a lawsuit filed by the American stock exchange regulator SEC. A trust will pay a fine of $1.5 million (1.28 million euros) on Musk’s behalf, without admitting guilt. The richest man in the world is said to have waited too long in 2022 to announce his purchases of shares in Twitter, now X.
Musk and the SEC reached an agreement on the settlement, which was announced Monday and will be submitted to a judge for approval. The fine is a fraction of the $150 million that Musk would have saved by breaking the rules, according to the stock exchange regulator. The SEC initially wanted to force the owner of X to pay the full amount and a fine.
In the lawsuit, filed in January 2025, the SEC accused Musk of failing to timely disclose that his stake in Twitter had crossed the 5 percent threshold when he purchased shares of the online platform in 2022. According to the regulator, shareholders who sold their shares during that period suffered financial damage.
