US Regulators Probe Delay In Elon Musk's Disclosure Of Twitter Stake: Report

Ideally, an investor is supposed to file a form with the SEC within 10 days from crossing a 5 per cent stake.

In this photo illustration, Twitter logo is seen on a smartphone screen and Elon Musk Twitter webpage

Source : Getty

New Delhi: In what could be a fresh trouble for Tesla chief Elon Musk, US regulators have started investigating into Musk's delayed disclosure of his sizable stake in Twitter Inc in March, reported the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Going by the report, the world’s billionaire businessman disclosed a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 4, a delay of at least 10 days since breaching the 5 per cent threshold for revealing a shareholding, according to the news agency Reuters.

Ideally, an investor is supposed to file a form with the SEC within 10 days from crossing a 5 per cent stake. The reporting is crucial because it hints at an early sign to stakeholders that a big investor may be eying to control the company. Moreover, the report stated that Musk's April 4 filing also shown his stake as passive, meaning he did not plan to take over Twitter or influence its management or business.

However, the next day only Musk was given a position on Twitter's board, and within a couple of weeks Musk announced deal to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.

It is not for the first time, but Musk has a long standing history of scuffles with the SEC. In a recent case, a US judge targeted him for trying to escape a settlement with the SEC requiring oversight of his Tesla tweets.

In April, it was 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.