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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler attends the Financial Stability Oversight Board meeting at the U.S. Treasury in Washington, DC on July 28, 2023.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a “settlement request” to tech billionaire Elon Musk. social media post on Thursday
The message contained a copy of a letter from Musk’s lawyer, Quinn Emanuel partner Alex Spiro, to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
The letter said the federal agency had pressured Musk to agree to a fine including a fine within 48 hours, or “certain purchases, sales and disclosures of Twitter stock” and “in certain cases to face charges.”
It has been the SEC investigating Musk or anyone else working with him committed securities fraud in 2022. Tesla The CEO sold shares in his car company Tesla and took a stake in Twitter, ahead of his lucrative acquisition of the social network now known as X.
“Oh Gary, how did you do this to me?” Musk said in a post he shared on X late Thursday, along with an emoji showing a face holding back tears and a copy of Spiro’s letter.
In another post Thursday, Musk wrote: “@Gro asked him to draw a picture of @GaryGensler. Very flattering, I think!” That post included an AI-generated image depicting the SEC chair as a snail-like creature wearing a suit.
A person with direct knowledge of the probe, who asked not to be named 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. .
If the SEC can’t reach a settlement agreement with Musk, this person said, charges would not necessarily be the next step. When the agency can’t reach a settlement agreement with defendants, it will sometimes issue what’s called a Wells Notice before enforcement officials make recommendations to the agency’s commissioners, who will decide whether to file charges.
Gensler, Musk and Spiro did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Musk’s lawyer argued in his letter that the SEC has “harassed Musk for more than six years” through investigative activity, including reopening an investigation into the billionaire’s Neuralink health technology 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 the individuals and companies associated with him,” and demanded to know whether the White House or the SEC directed this action against his client.
In 2018, SEC get paid After Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private with the securities fraud at $420 per share and that he had “guaranteed financing” to do so. No private deal has ever materialized.
Musk and Tesla paid $20 million in fines to the agency, and entered into a revised settlement that forced Musk to temporarily step down as chairman of Tesla’s board. Since then, Musk has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the SEC.
The leader of Tesla, SpaceX and X also became a mega-donor to Republicans in recent years, helping to return President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.
In July of this year, Trump vowed to fire the chairman of the SEC. After Trump’s election victory, Gensler announced that he would leave his position instead.
In an extraordinary civil case In regards to the Twitter deal that is the focus of the SEC’s latest investigation, the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System sued Musk alleging he intentionally concealed his progressive investments in the social network and plans to buy the company.
Lawyers for the pension fund argued that Musk, by not openly disclosing his Twitter investments and acquisition plans, influenced the decisions of other shareholders and put them at a disadvantage.
SEE: Elon Musk has asked a judge to block OpenAI from becoming a non-profit
