The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a “settlement demand” to Elon Musk, the tech billionaire disclosed in a social media post on Thursday.
The post included a copy of a letter sent by Musk’s attorney, Quinn Emanuel Partner Alex Spiro, to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The letter said that the federal agency had pressured Musk to agree to a settlement including a fine within 48 hours, or “face charges on numerous counts” regarding “Certain Purchases, Sales and Disclosures of Twitter Shares.”
The SEC has been investigating whether Musk, or anyone else working with him, committed securities fraud in 2022 as the Tesla CEO sold shares in his car company Tesla and shored up a stake in Twitter, ahead of his leveraged buyout of the social network which is now known as X.
“Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” Musk said in the post he shared on X late Thursday, along with an emoji showing a …