SEC Probe Reopens Probe Into Musk’s Neuralink – Report

Elon Musk’s turmous relationship with US federal agencies continues, after he confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has re-opened an investigation into Neuralink.

In a tweet on X (formerly Twitter), Musk posted “Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” along with a letter from Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro and addressed to outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

This is not the only regulator issue facing Neuralink. Earlier this month a letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that an animal testing laboratory at Neuralink had been cited, after it was found to have “objectionable conditions or practices”.

Neuralink investigation

That came after Neuralink previously came under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations, amid internal staff complaints that animal testing at Neuralink was being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths.

Now according to the 12 December letter shared by Musk on Thursday, Alex Spiro alleged that the SEC had issued Musk a 48-hour settlement deadline to either accept a monetary payment or face “charges on numerous counts” over the probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter (now known as X).

The settlement amount was not disclosed in the letter, but the SEC demand “follows a multi-year investigation and more than six years of harassment of Mr Musk by the Commission and its Staff,” Musk’s lawyer wrote, before demanding that this “importerly motivated campaign against My Musk stops.”

We demand to know who directed these actions- whether it was you (Gary Gensler, SEC chair) or the White House,” the letter concluded. “These tactics and misguided scheme will not intimidate us,” the letter says.

SEC feud

The SEC is probably one of Elon Musk’s least favourite federal agencies, and he has repeatedly clashed with them over the years.

However the bad blood between Musk and the SEC really began in August 2018, when Musk surprised the markets, when he tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private and he had secured funding to do so.

The SEC sought to ban Elon Musk from acting as an officer or director of a publicly traded company as a result, after the privatisation never materialised.

In the end, the US financial regulator forced Musk to step down as chairman of Tesla and pay $20m in penalties.

In addition, Tesla itself also had to pay a $20 million penalty.

Musk however was allowed to retain the Tesla CEO role and have his subsequent tweets about Telsa vetted by a company lawyer – a process that he has allegedly broken on multiple occasions and he continues to try and scrap that oversight.

Musk has not helped his corner after he continued to insult the SEC over the years.

In October 2018 for example Musk tweeted that the US agency was the “shortseller enrichment commission.”

Then in December 2018 Musk publicly admitted that he had “no respect” for the SEC. Worse was to come in July 2020 when Musk tweeted another insult.

The message was widely read as having a vulgar meaning and comprising a major insult to the agency.

In September 2024 the SEC said it intends to seek sanctions against Musk after the billionaire failed to appear for testimony ordered by the court for the SEC’s probe into his $44 billion (£33bn) takeover of Twitter.