SEC alleges Musk cheated Twitter investors out of millions, Bloomberg reports

The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, claiming he failed to timely disclose a major purchase of Twitter (TWTR) shares ahead of his takeover of the social media platform in 2022, Bloomberg’s Nicola M. White and Chris Dolmetsch report. The complaint alleges Musk of failing to promptly report that he had accumulated more than 5% of the platform’s stock in early 2022. “Because Musk failed to timely disclose his beneficial ownership, he was able to make these purchases from the unsuspecting public at artificially low prices,” the regulator said in its civil suit filed in federal court in Washington, DC. “Investors who sold Twitter common stock during this period did so at artificially low prices and thus suffered substantial economic harm.” Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, said the action is “an admission” that the SEC cannot bring an “actual case,” because Musk “has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is.” Publicly traded companies in the social media space include Meta Platforms (META), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Pinterest (PINS), Reddit (RDDT) and Snap (SNAP).