Elon Musk sued by Twitter investors for late disclosure of stake ratio he purchased

Elon Musk recently bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter and was offered a seat on the company’s board, but he turned down the offer at the last minute. Now he is reportedly being sued by investors of the social media platform because he failed to reveal his stake acquisition in the right timeframe.

It was added that the investors are also upset that the Tesla and SpaceX chief did not promptly disclose how much Twitter shares he purchased. Earlier this month, Musk suddenly announced he bought a significant stake in the social media platform which led shares to go up, and investors see this as a positive move.

However, his late disclosure of the deal got Musk into trouble with the feds and now with the investors. According to CNBC, US federal trade laws state that investors who buy more than a five percent stock in a company must notify the Securities and Exchange Commission within 10 days of the purchase.

It was reported that the 50-year-old billionaire started buying Twitter shares in January, and it allegedly made the deal on March 14. With the given dates, he should have informed the SEC of his recent acquisition on March 24, but he apparently failed to do so and only revealed it on April 4.

In connection with the late notice, several Twitter investors filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, April 12. They were represented by the Block & Leviton law firm that submitted the suit in Manhattan federal court in New York. In the filing, the investors alleged that Elon Musk was able to buy stocks of the company at a deflated price and initially purchased 5%, then bought more before publicly revealing his stake.

Marc Bain Rasella, one of the stockholders who filed the lawsuit against Musk, explained that by delaying his disclosure, the Tesla founder was able to continue buying stocks of Twitter at a lower price until he reached the 9.2% stake. As per Business Insider, Rasella wants to represent a class of investors who unloaded their shares between March 24 and April 1.

“What seems crystal clear is that Elon Musk missed the applicable 10-day filing deadline under Sections 13(d) and 13(g) of the Securities Act of 1933 to report 5% ownership in a public company,” Alon Kapen, a corporate transaction lawyer at Farrell Fritz, explained in another interview. “That gave him an extra 10 days in which to buy additional shares before the per-share price spike that occurred when he finally announced his holdings on April 4.”