“Elon Musk made a cool $156 million by filing a required SEC form 11 days late. Investors are supposed to notify the Securities and Exchange Commission when they surpass a five percent stake in a company, which Musk did with Twitter on March 14. But he didn’t publicly declare his ownership stake until April 4th. During that time, he continued to buy stock at $39 per share. When he did finally go public, Twitter’s share price rose by about 30 percent to over $50 per share — netting the world’s richest man about $156 million.
This isn’t the first time Musk has played fast and loose with the SEC. In 2018, the agency put him under a consent decree after he allegedly misled investors for tweeting that he had enough funding to take Tesla private. He paid a $20 million fine, equivalent to some loose change for a man worth over $250 billion.
Time and time again, billionaires like Musk have shown that they consider themselves to be above the law. They have amassed enough wealth and power so that any penalty amounts to a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, Musk’s skirting of the law has been rewarded with a seat on Twitter’s board. Yet again, a billionaire has exploited the system for his own gain.
What do you think?”
- Robert Reich
This isn’t the first time Musk has played fast and loose with the SEC. In 2018, the agency put him under a consent decree after he allegedly misled investors for tweeting that he had enough funding to take Tesla private. He paid a $20 million fine, equivalent to some loose change for a man worth over $250 billion.
Time and time again, billionaires like Musk have shown that they consider themselves to be above the law. They have amassed enough wealth and power so that any penalty amounts to a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, Musk’s skirting of the law has been rewarded with a seat on Twitter’s board. Yet again, a billionaire has exploited the system for his own gain.
What do you think?”
- Robert Reich
