SEC Wants Musk to Pay Money or Face Charges: Lawyer

X owner Elon Musk participates in a town hall-style meeting at Ridley High School in Folsom, Pa., on Oct. 17, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Dec. 11 demanded a settlement from Elon Musk to avoid charges related to his purchase of Twitter, now known as X, according to a letter from Musk’s lawyer to the agency.

Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion. That year, the SEC launched an investigation into whether he violated federal securities laws through his purchase, statements, and SEC filings.

“Yesterday the Commission Staff issued a settlement demand that required Mr. Musk agree within 48 hours to either accept a monetary payment or face charges on numerous counts,” Alex Spiro, the lawyer, wrote in the letter to the chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, on Thursday. “They indicated that this demand was the result of a directive from their superiors and that charges would be brought imminently unless Mr. Musk acquiesced.”

The SEC did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Spiro said that the SEC also subpoenaed him in its investigation but that he refused to cooperate, and that the agency also reopened a probe into Neuralink, another company owned by Musk.

“This series of events makes clear that the Commission is not motivated to seek the truth but instead is engaged in an improperly motivated campaign against Mr. Musk and the individuals and companies associated with him,” Spiro wrote. “We demand to know who directed these actions—whether it was you or the White House.”

President Joe Biden has in the past called for an investigation into Musk. The White House did not immediately return an inquiry.

Musk posted a copy of the letter from Spiro on X.

“Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” he wrote.

In one of the latest developments in the case, the SEC tried to convince a federal judge to sanction Musk for earlier failing to appear for a deposition, but the judge turned down the request on the grounds Musk showed up at a later date.

The SEC also brought a case against Musk in 2018 over his social media posts related to taking Tesla private. Musk settled that case by resigning as Tesla’s chairman and agreeing to pay $20 million.

Earlier in the day, Musk stated in a post that the SEC is “just another weaponized institution doing political dirty work” after a federal appeals court struck down an SEC policy that required companies listed on the stock exchange to have “diverse representation” on their boards.

Paul Atkins, who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump, is set to take over from Gensler after Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025.

Musk, who helped get Trump elected, is co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, a group that will look at ways to reduce government spending.