The SEC sued Musk in January, just days before President Donald Trump took office and more than two years after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
A federal judge reportedly rejected Elon Musk’s bid to move a lawsuit brought forward by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to Texas concerning an alleged late disclosure of his stake in Twitter Inc.
“The Court takes Mr. Musk’s convenience seriously, but it also notes that Mr. Musk has considerable means and spends at least forty percent of his time outside his chosen forum,” US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in an order Thursday in Washington, according to a Bloomberg report.
Twitter has been subsequently renamed to X and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of xAI. The SEC sued Musk in January, just days before President Donald Trump took office, and more than two years after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
In its lawsuit, the SEC alleged that Musk failed to meet the deadline set by the regulator to disclose that he had accumulated at least a 5% stake in Twitter. It stated that this delay allowed Musk to acquire Twitter shares at a discount, costing its shareholders more than $150 million.
However, Musk sought a dismissal of the lawsuit in August, with his attorneys arguing that it was a waste of the court’s time and taxpayer resources. “The SEC does not allege that Mr. Musk acted intentionally, deliberately, willfully, or even recklessly… 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,” Musk’s attorneys stated, according to a filing.
Musk also filed a request to have the case moved from Washington to Texas. “Forcing Mr. Musk to litigate in this district would merely perpetuate and compound the harm from the SEC’s years-long campaign against him,” Musk’s attorneys said, according to the report.
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