{"id":751728,"date":"2026-07-09T02:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751728\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T02:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:57:17","slug":"biden-appointed-judge-reluctantly-approves-elon-musks-settlement-with-sec-over-twitter-disclosures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751728\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden-appointed judge reluctantly approves Elon Musk’s settlement with SEC over Twitter disclosures"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge on Wednesday approved the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s settlement with\u00a0Elon\u00a0Musk\u00a0over his purchase of Twitter shares<\/a>, despite expressing \u201csignificant misgivings\u201d about the \u201cred flags\u201d the accord raised.<\/p>\n

US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan<\/a> in Washington, DC., said she had only a limited role in assessing whether the settlement meets minimum standards of fairness and reasonableness, or instead \u201cmakes a mockery of judicial power,\u201d and questioned whether the Trump administration let the world\u2019s richest person off too easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cA court presented with a consent judgment is not a rubber stamp. But neither is it an ombudsman,\u201d Sooknanan wrote. \u201cWhether the Executive Branch (through the\u00a0SEC) has done enough to hold Mr.\u00a0Musk\u00a0to account for his alleged violation is, like many other issues, for our citizenry to decide at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rod Lamkey \/ CNP \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Musk\u00a0is a former adviser to Republican President Trump. Sooknanan was appointed to the bench by former Democratic President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0SEC\u00a0spokesperson declined to comment.\u00a0Musk\u2019s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0settlement\u00a0requires a trust in\u00a0Musk\u2019s name to pay\u00a0$1.5 million<\/a>\u00a0to resolve\u00a0SEC\u00a0claims that\u00a0Musk\u00a0took 11 days too long in March and April 2022 to disclose his early purchases of Twitter shares.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0SEC, the delayed disclosure saved\u00a0Musk\u00a0$150 million by letting him buy Twitter shares at low prices before investors caught on.<\/p>\n

Musk\u00a0has said the\u00a0delay was inadvertent. He ultimately paid $44 billion for Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X.<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

The social media platform is now part of\u00a0Musk\u2019s rocket and satellite company SpaceX<\/a>.\u00a0Musk\u00a0also leads the electric-vehicle company Tesla. He is worth $927.2 billion according to Forbes magazine.<\/p>\n

Judge wonders if Musk got special \u2018one-time\u2019 treatment<\/p>\n

In her decision, Sooknanan questioned why the\u00a0SEC\u00a0dropped its demand for\u00a0Musk\u00a0to give up ill-gotten gains to compensate his alleged victims.<\/p>\n

She said the\u00a0SEC\u2019s argument that it had not historically sought disgorgement in similar cases may or may not be fair, \u201cbut query what that says about the propriety of settling in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sooknanan also questioned why the\u00a0SEC\u00a0chose to settle with\u00a0Musk\u2019s trust, allowing\u00a0Musk\u00a0to publicly proclaim he had been cleared of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

REUTERS<\/p>\n

In May, the judge said\u00a0SEC\u00a0lawyers at a prior hearing\u00a0appeared\u00a0surprised<\/a>\u00a0when\u00a0Musk\u2019s lawyers revealed there had been settlement talks with the regulator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court is left to wonder whether the\u00a0SEC\u00a0will afford other alleged\u00a0securities-law violators such solicitude,\u201d Sooknanan wrote. \u201cOr is this a one-time deal designed for Mr.\u00a0Musk\u00a0negotiated without the involvement of the\u00a0SEC\u00a0lawyers litigating this case?\u201d<\/p>\n

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The settlement was announced on May 4, following the departure in March of former\u00a0SEC\u00a0enforcement chief Margaret Ryan after only six months on the job.<\/p>\n

Ryan had\u00a0clashed\u00a0with agency leaders\u00a0over the direction of its enforcement program.<\/p>\n

In a court filing, the\u00a0SEC\u00a0said the settlement did not result from collusion, and the $1.5 million penalty was the largest of its type.<\/p>\n

It also said the public benefited from an injunction that effectively binds\u00a0Musk\u00a0when he acts through the trust, \u201can investment vehicle that he appears to use to manage much of his wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge on Wednesday approved the Securities and Exchange Commission\u2019s settlement with\u00a0Elon\u00a0Musk\u00a0over his purchase of Twitter shares,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,11,38340,42077,9382,172,9282],"class_list":["post-751728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-elon-musk","tag-judges","tag-securities-and-exchange-commission","tag-settlements","tag-tech","tag-x-formerly-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}