Elon Musk has agreed to pay 1.5 million dollars to settle a long running dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the way he disclosed his Twitter share buying spree in 2022. Under the terms of the deal, which still needs a federal judge to sign off, Musk admits no wrongdoing and the SEC will drop the case once approval comes through.
The investigation centered on the eleven day gap between the moment Musk crossed the five percent ownership threshold in Twitter and the moment he actually reported it. Regulators argued that the delay let him keep buying shares at pre announcement prices, saving him roughly 150 million dollars at the expense of other Twitter shareholders.
The dispute grew unusually personal. The SEC accused Musk of dragging his feet on subpoenas, while Musk in turn accused then chair Gary Gensler of running a harassment campaign against him. Gensler left the agency shortly after the lawsuit was filed, around the time President Donald Trump returned to office.
According to Reuters, the 1.5 million dollar penalty is the largest the SEC has ever imposed on a single individual for this category of disclosure violation. The settlement still needs final approval from Judge Sooknanan, the same judge who earlier rejected Musk’s motion to throw the case out.
The resolution closes one of several open regulatory matters involving Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which he renamed X.
