Billionaire Elon Musk is accused of 'scamming' Twitter shareholders.

Billionaire Elon Musk has just had his request to dismiss a fraud lawsuit rejected by a US court, and he is accused of deliberately delaying the public disclosure of his investment in Twitter.

Judge Andrew Carter of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled that shareholders had presented sufficient evidence to show that billionaire Elon Musk intended to commit fraud. Specifically, Musk is accused of providing false information to regulators, posting misleading tweets about the future of Twitter, and secretly building up his stake in the company.

The court dismissed some other allegations in this class-action lawsuit, but has not yet ruled on the merits of the case. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also suing Musk for delayed disclosure of information.

According to the lawsuit led by the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, Musk ignored the SEC's March 24, 2022, deadline to announce the purchase of a 5% stake in Twitter. Instead, he waited 11 days longer before disclosing his 9.2% holding.

The plaintiffs allege that this action saved Musk over $200 million, while also harming them by artificially underselling Twitter shares. Musk subsequently acquired all of Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.

In his 43-page ruling, Judge Andrew Carter made key observations regarding the case involving billionaire Elon Musk and his purchase of Twitter shares.

Therefore, Musk's announcement that he holds 9.2% of Twitter shares could be seen as misleading. This is because the information led shareholders to believe that Musk was only a passive investor and had no intention of acquiring the company.

Furthermore, the court also ruled that shareholders had grounds to sue Musk over two controversial tweets on March 26, 2022. In those tweets, Musk hinted at building a competitor to Twitter and mocked the proposed acquisition of Twitter.

However, Musk's lawyers argued that these tweets refuted any allegations of fraudulent intent. But Judge Carter found the plaintiff's argument "more compelling."

Reportedly, Twitter shares surged 27% on April 4, 2022, shortly after Musk announced he had acquired a 9.2% stake.

Hien Phan (Source: Reuters)

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/ty-phu-elon-musk-bi-cao-buoc-lua-dao-co-dong-twitter-ar934496.html