A federal judge on Thursday rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s attempt to move a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit over his failure to disclose his stake in Twitter — the social platform now known as X — out of Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan denied Musk’s request to move the case to Texas or New York, finding that the tech mogul had failed to show that such a change of venue was warranted.
“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,” Sooknanan noted.
“Indeed, although Mr. Musk may have ‘rarely’ traveled to this District in recent months, Mr. Musk’s brief itself indicates that he has spent substantial time here this year,” the judge added.
The SEC sued Musk in January, accusing him of violating securities laws by failing to disclose his growing stake in the platform in early 2022, before purchasing the company.
Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, did not disclose when his stake in the company exceeded 5 percent as required by law. He filed the forms a little over a week later, by which point he owned more than 9 percent of shares.
The SEC alleges the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was able to continue purchasing stock at “artificially low prices” and underpaid investors by more than $150 million.
The judge’s denial marks the latest in a lengthy saga between Musk and the agency, which had been investigating his purchase of Twitter stock for several years. The agency previously took the billionaire to court over his failure to appear at scheduled testimony in the probe.
The commission offered Musk a settlement last December, giving him two days to accept a monetary payment or face charges, according to a letter from his attorney Alex Spiro to then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The letter, which Musk shared to X, noted that they “categorically refused” the offer.
