Acting Head of SEC Was Only Commissioner Who Didn’t Vote to Sue Elon Musk

Just before Donald Trump take authority in January , the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly hold a vote on whether the agency would action Elon Musk for alleged violation of securities legal philosophy related to his leverage of Twitter . harmonize to Reuters , four commissioners — three Democrats and one Republican — voted to move forward with legal action against Musk . The lonely “ no ” vote come from Mark Uyeda . He ’s now the behave head of the agency .

At military issue with the Musk case was his failure to share the fact that he had acquired more than 5 % of share in Twitter while it was still public , a doorstep that requires public disclosure within 10 calendar days . Musk keep onto the information for the full 10 day and then at least 10 more days , according to an SEC ailment , which allegedly allowed him to underpay for the share by at least $ 150 million . Once Musk did finally make public that he owned more than 5 % of the fellowship , Twitter ’s share Mary Leontyne Price climb 27 % .

The SEC has been investigating that , along with other shady body process palisade Musk ’s acquisition of Twitter , since 2022 . On January 14 , 2025 , the commissioner put it to a voting to square off if the agency would pursue legal action at law based on the findings of its investigation . Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce took issue with how much the SEC wanted to fine Musk , according to Reuters , but vote for the lawsuit anyway .

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seal

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seal© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

But Uyeda took a different route . grant to areport from Bloomberg , he started lobby SEC staffer to sign up a pledge declaring that the case against Musk was not motivated by political relation . insist that a font is not political is not a thing the SEC does ( also hold this case is not political implies other ones are , so it ’d be unearthly to do ) and staff reject to signalise the pledge . With essentially no one behind him , Uyeda voted no on the movement to process Musk , and themotion go across , 4 to 1 .

And now , a little over a month later , Uyeda has beentapped by Trumpto be the acting heading of the SEC . The agency is still move forward with the causa against Musk — in fact , he just gotserved a court summonsrelated to the sheath last week that requires him or his lawyers to react by April 4 . But he can in all probability rest easy make out the cat at the top of the agency is on his side . That , combined with Trump’sexecutive orderdeclaring past Biden governance investigation to be politically incite , the SEC adopting afresh ruleadding hurdle to conducting investigations , and theongoing gutting of the agencyby Musk himself and the Department of Government Efficiency , impart Musk quite a bit of sway in decide the termination of any action against him .

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