Elon Musk on Monday agreed to pay a small amount to end a government lawsuit that accused him of breaking stock market rules when he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter before his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform in 2022.
Musk’s trust will pay a $1.5 million fine under the deal, which was filed in a Washington federal court and still needs a judge’s approval.
The case involves Musk’s missing a statutory deadline for notifying regulators as he bought more and more Twitter shares ahead of the takeover.
Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro cast the outcome as a vindication, saying his client “has now been cleared of all issues related to the late filing of forms in the Twitter acquisition, as we said from the outset he would be.”
“A trust vehicle has agreed to a small fine for being late on one filing,” Spiro said.
In an email to AFP, Spiro added that the deal with the US government was not a settlement “because he did nothing wrong.”
“The case against him was dismissed,” Spiro said.
The case centered on a simple rule: when an investor buys more than five percent of a publicly traded company, they are required by law to disclose that stake within 10 days.
Experienced broadcast journalist with over 5 years of experience in reporting, multimedia editing, and storytelling across both traditional and digital media. I currently work with Vision FM 92.1 and Daily Frontier, where I report on security, conflict, and humanitarian issues, while also translating news into Hausa and Pidgin to reach wider audiences.
I also serve as a correspondent for Daily Frontier in Plateau and Benue States, Nigeria, covering security, conflict, and humanitarian developments in the region.
I hold a Diploma in Mass Communication from Adamawa State Polytechnic and a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the National Open University of Nigeria.
