SEC ‘reopens’ probe into Neuralink, Musk’s lawyer says

By Mrinmay Dey

(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) this week has reopened an investigation into Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink, in response to a letter shared by Musk on Thursday on social media platform X.

The Dec. 12 letter from Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro and addressed to outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler additionally stated that the company had issued Musk a 48-hour settlement deadline to both settle for a financial fee or face costs over the probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter.

Musk has since renamed Twitter as ‘X.’

The settlement quantity was not disclosed within the letter.

Musk has lengthy sparred with the SEC and final 12 months 4 lawmakers requested the fee to analyze whether or not Musk dedicated securities fraud by allegedly deceptive buyers concerning the security of a mind implant developed by Neuralink.

How a lot traction the SEC would acquire in any motion towards Musk is unclear.

The billionaire entrepreneur who additionally heads Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX is about to realize extraordinary affect after spending greater than 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} to assist Donald Trump win November’s presidential election. His firms are anticipated to be nicely insulated from regulation and enforcement measures.

Trump has additionally appointed Musk to a process power that plans a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. authorities.

Spiro wrote within the letter that he and Musk wouldn’t be “intimidated” by the SEC and that they reserved their authorized rights.

The SEC and Neuralink didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark outdoors common enterprise hours.

A federal decide in November rejected the SEC’s request to sanction Musk after he failed to seem for court-ordered testimony in relation to the Twitter takeover probe on whether or not Musk violated securities legal guidelines in 2022.

The fee had additionally sued Musk in 2018 over his Twitter posts about taking Tesla personal. He settled that lawsuit by paying a $20 million high quality, agreeing to let Tesla attorneys evaluation some posts prematurely and stepping down as chairman.

(This story has been corrected to say that the settlement demand was issued in reference to the SEC probe into Musk’s Twitter takeover, not Neuralink, in paragraph 2)