Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has threatened to press charges against Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk if he does not comply with a monetary demand.
The billionaire entrepreneur posted a letter that showed he could face charges that date back to his purchase of Twitter, now known as X, in 2022 with the caption, “Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?”
A letter from Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, to Gensler said that the X boss had been informed that he had to “agree within 48 hours to either accept a monetary payment or face charges on numerous counts.”
The attorney said that the demand was regarding “certain purchases, sales and disclosures of Twitter shares” and was another in a long line of what he said was “more than six years of harassment of Mr. Musk by the Commission.”
“We demand to know who directed these actions — whether it was you or the White House,” he said in the letter.
The SEC responded to the CEO’s claims in a message to The New York Post.
“It is the policy of the SEC to conduct investigations on a confidential basis to preserve the integrity of its investigative process,” it said. “The SEC therefore does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”
Earlier this month a CNN panel was stunned by how the Space X CEO’s net worth has grown since President-elect Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris.
The segment began with the pair discussing Musk’s appointment by President-elect Donald Trump, along with business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to focus on cutting wasteful government spending, potentially reducing the federal workforce and even recommending the elimination of entire federal agencies with the aim of dramatically reducing the $36.1 trillion national debt.
