Elon Musk settles SEC Twitter case with $1.5M fine

Elon Musk has settled a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit over the timing of his 2022 Twitter stock disclosure. 

A trust in Musk’s name will pay a $1.5 million civil penalty without admitting wrongdoing. The agreement still needs court approval.

The settlement was disclosed on May 4, 2026, in federal court in Washington, D.C. It ends one SEC case tied to Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which is now known as X.

SEC said Musk disclosed stake late

The SEC sued Musk in January 2025. The agency said he waited too long to disclose that he had bought more than 5% of Twitter’s shares in 2022. It said the delay allowed him to continue buying shares before the market knew about his position.

The regulator said Musk disclosed the stake 11 days late. It also claimed he saved about $150 million by buying more Twitter shares at lower prices before revealing a 9.2% position. Under the settlement, Musk will not have to return that alleged saving.

Musk had argued that the delay was not planned. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, said: 

Other Twitter-related cases continue

The SEC case focused on Musk’s early Twitter share purchases before the takeover. It does not settle every legal dispute tied to the deal. Reuters reported that Musk still faces a separate shareholder case linked to comments he made during the buyout process.

In that case, shareholders alleged that Musk’s comments about fake and spam accounts hurt Twitter’s share price. A San Francisco jury found Musk liable on March 20, 2026. Musk is trying to overturn the verdict or secure a new trial.

Additionally, the latest settlement also follows Musk’s earlier clash with the SEC over Tesla. In 2018, the regulator charged him after he said he had “secured” funding to take Tesla private. Musk later settled that case and paid a $20 million civil fine.

Elsewhere, as featured in our April 4 coverage, X prepared a crypto scam safety feature. The tool would lock accounts that mention cryptocurrency for the first time and require extra verification before posting resumes. The feature came after account hijacking campaigns used trusted profiles to push scam tokens.