Elon Musk cheated Twitter shareholders out of more than $150 million by waiting too long to disclose his growing stake in the company as he prepared a takeover bid, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed in a lawsuit filed days before the Trump administration takes over.
The agency¡¯s complaint, which was immediately disputed by a lawyer for Musk, accuses the billionaire of failing to promptly report that he had amassed more than 5% of the social media platform¡¯s stock in early 2022 ¡ª a revelation that would have sent the stock¡¯s price up.
¡°Because Musk failed to timely disclose his beneficial ownership, he was able to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices,¡± the regulator said in its civil suit filed in federal court in Washington, DC. ¡°Investors who sold Twitter common stock during this period did so at artificially low prices and thus suffered substantial economic harm.¡±
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