Judge approves $1.5 million SEC-Musk settlement over Twitter investment – Engadget

The opinion says whether it’s fair is ‘for our citizenry to decide at the ballot box.’ kovop/Shutterstock In 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission under former chair Gary Gensler brought a case against Elon Musk regarding his acquisition of Twitter. The regulator questioned Musk’s 11-day delay in revealing his previous investments in the social media platform, arguing that the wait allowed the entrepreneur to increase the size of his share before making the purchase, saving him as much as $150 million at the expense of the platform’s shareholders. Following a change in leadership at both the SEC and the White House, the agency reached a settlement earlier this year that saw Musk pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million while admitting no wrongdoing. Having the already obscenely wealthy Musk pay essentially pocket change struck many as insufficient. But today, Reuters reported that the protracted drama officially ends. US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan delivered a memorandum and order to finalize the settlement. While Sooknanan did approve the outcome, the order came with an unsubtle critique of how the case was handled: “This Court is limited to evaluating whether the proposed consent judgment meets minimum standards of fairness and reasonableness, or
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