A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has approved a settlement between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Elon Musk, ending a legal dispute that has run for years. The case centered on Musk's late disclosure of his growing stake in Twitter, now known as X.
Under the terms of the agreement, Musk will pay $1.5 million to resolve the SEC lawsuit. The commission had accused Musk of cheating investors when he missed a 2022 deadline to disclose his purchase of shares in the company.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan entered the consent judgment on Wednesday, despite stating she had significant misgivings about the deal. She noted that the settlement was not run-of-the-mill.
Judge Sooknanan explained that she had a limited role in assessing whether the settlement met minimum standards of fairness and reasonableness. She wrote that it is up to the public to decide at the ballot box if the SEC did enough to hold Musk accountable.