The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US regulators are investigating Elon Musk’s delayed disclosure of his ownership stake in Twitter last month.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed Musk’s 9.2% stake in Twitter on April 4, a delay of at least 10 days since he exceeded the 5% threshold required for disclosure, reports said.
The SEC requires investors who have stakes of more than 5% to file a form within 10 days. A big investor could be trying to gain control of the company by making this declaration early.
The SEC declined to comment on the report and the Tesla top boss did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Apart from the delay, Musk’s April 4 filing also characterized his stake as passive, meaning he did not plan to take over Twitter or influence its management or business.
The next day, however, he was offered a position on Twitter’s board, and a couple of weeks later, the world’s richest man had clinched a $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant.
Musk, known for his candid Twitter posts, has a long history of skirmishes with the SEC.
Most recently, a US judge slammed him for trying to escape a settlement with the SEC requiring oversight of his Tesla tweets.
In April, the Information reported that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Musk violated a law that requires companies and people to report certain large transactions to antitrust-enforcement agencies.