Elon Musk settles SEC lawsuit over Twitter purchase and agrees to pay $1.5m fine

Musk won’t have to give up any money he allegedly saved from delaying disclosure of initial purchase of Twitter stock Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Elon Musk settled the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil lawsuit accusing the world’s richest person of waiting too long in 2022 to disclose his initial purchases of stock in Twitter, now known as X. A trust in Musk’s name will pay a $1.5m civil penalty, without admitting wrongdoing. Musk won’t have to give up any money he allegedly saved from the delay. The settlement was disclosed on Monday in the Washington DC federal court. In its January 2025 lawsuit, the SEC said Musk’s 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5% Twitter stake in late March and early April 2022 let him buy more than $500min shares at artificially low prices, before he finally revealed a 9.2% stake. The SEC had argued that Musk should pay a civil fine and repay the $150m he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting investors. Musk called the delay inadvertent and accused the SEC of violating his free speech rights by targeting him. “Mr Musk has now been cleared of all issues related to the late filing of forms in the Twitter acquisi