The body responsible for monitoring the United States capital markets, SEC, this week reopened an investigation into the NeuralinkElon Musk’s brain chip startup, according to a letter shared by Musk on Thursday (12) on his social network, X.
The Dec. 12 letter from Musk lawyer Alex Spiro, addressed to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, also said the agency had given Musk 48 hours to agree to make a monetary payment or face charges related to the acquisition of the Twitter for 44 billion dollars. After the purchase, Musk renamed Twitter “X”
The value of the settlement was not disclosed in the letter.
Musk has long been at odds with the SEC, and last year four US lawmakers asked the commission to investigate whether Musk committed fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of a brain implant developed by Neuralink.
It is not known for sure what strength the SEC would have in any action against Musk.
The billionaire businessman, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, is poised to gain extraordinary influence after spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Donald Trump win November’s US presidential election.
Trump also named Musk to a task force planning a broad review of the US government under the guise of making it more efficient.
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Spiro wrote in the letter that he and Musk will not be “intimidated” by the SEC.
Representatives for the SEC and Neuralink declined to comment.
In November, a federal judge rejected the SEC’s request to sanction Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered deposition in connection with the investigation into the Twitter purchase.
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The commission also sued Musk in 2018 over his Twitter posts about a possible delisting of Tesla. The billionaire resolved this case by paying a fine of 20 million dollars, agreeing to allow Tesla’s lawyers to review some publications in advance and leaving his position as chairman of the automaker’s board of directors.
