Tesla's Elon Musk may add to SEC ire with late report about Twitter stake

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Musk break securities laws again? Former securities officials and professors said Musk may have missed a key disclosure deadline when he bought 9% of Twitter. And Securities and Exchange Commission regulators could use any shortfall to try to punish Musk more for other lapses, some believe. Musk on Monday disclosed that he bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc, making him the micro-blogging site's largest shareholder and triggering a rise of more than 27% in the company's shares. The filing said March 14, 2022 is the date of the event that requires the statement.

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U.S. securities law requires disclosure within 10 days of acquiring 5% of a company, which in Musk's case would be March 24. A late report could lead to per-violation civil penalty of up to $207,183, when adjusted for inflation, according to Urska Velikonja, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center. That's a financial slap on the wrist for Musk, the world's richest person with $302 billion net worth, according to Forbes, but the regulator could look into market manipulation allegations regarding the Twitter stock buy and seek harsher sanctions in an ongoing investigation regarding his Tesla stock sales, experts say. «This is not really a gray area. He acquired it and didn't file within 10 days. It's a violation. And so this is a slam dunk case from the SEC perspective,» Adam C. Pritchard, a law professor at University of Michigan Law School, said. The SEC is also investigating Musk's Nov. 6, 2021, tweet asking his followers whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stake. The regulator reached a 2018