Billionaire Elon Musk filed a motion on Thursday seeking to dismiss a civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which accused him of waiting too long in 2022 to disclose a significant stake in social media platform Twitter, later renamed X.
The SEC, in a complaint filed in January in Washington, D.C., said Musk violated federal securities law by waiting 11 days beyond the required 10-day window to disclose his initial purchase of 5% of Twitter’s common shares. The agency sought a civil fine and forfeiture of profits it said resulted from the delayed disclosure.
SEC rules require investors to disclose within 10 calendar days when crossing a 5% ownership threshold. In Musk’s case, the deadline would have been 24 March, 2022.
According to the SEC, Musk instead purchased more than $500 million of Twitter shares at “artificially low prices” before finally revealing his stake on 4 April, 2022, by which time he held a 9.2% share.
Musk’s lawyers argued that he halted further purchases of Twitter shares and filed the disclosure one business day after his wealth manager consulted securities counsel.
“The SEC does not allege that Mr. Musk acted intentionally, deliberately, willfully, or even recklessly,” Musk’s legal team said.
“Rather, the SEC alleges that Mr. Musk late-filed a single beneficial ownership form three years ago, and fully corrected any alleged error immediately upon its discovery. There is no ongoing violation,” they added.
The lawsuit was filed on 14 January, six days before Republican President Donald Trump took office and appointed Musk as a special adviser on federal workforce and spending reductions.
Musk faces a court deadline to respond by Friday (29 August).
Musk’s lawyers also claimed SEC was unfairly targeting him, saying the action “reveals an agency targeting an individual for his protected criticism of government overreach.”
The SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside business hours.
Musk has previously clashed with the SEC, including a 2018 case over his tweets suggesting he might take Tesla private and had secured funding.
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