Musk agrees to pay $1.5 mln over Twitter share buying

WASHINGTON

Elon Musk on May 4 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.

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.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that polices financial markets, in January 2025 said Musk blew past that deadline by 11 days when he was building up his position in Twitter in early 2022.

The SEC said Musk’s delay allowed him to keep buying at bargain prices, saving himself an estimated $150 million at the expense of other shareholders who sold without knowing what was happening.

Despite those allegations, the deal with the SEC does not require Musk to pay back any of those savings.

His trust agreed only to the $1.5 million penalty and a promise not to violate the same rule again.

The SEC said it amended its complaint to add Musk’s trust as a defendant and filed the proposed settlement at the same time. If the judge signs off, the agency said it will drop Musk personally from the case, ending it entirely.