Elon Musk has demanded to know if President Joe Biden is targeting him after reigniting his bitter feud with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The billionaire Trump confidante has accused the SEC of harassing him for over six years and suggested the campaign against him was politically motivated.
He posted a letter on his X social media platform revealing that the SEC has reopened an investigation into his brain-chip startup Neuralink.
The letter from Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro also said the SEC gave him a 48-hour ultimatum to settle a probe into his $44 billion investment in Twitter or risk facing charges.
“Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?” Musk wrote with a teary emoji on X in a reference to outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
Spiro writes that the demands come after “more than six years of harassment of Mr. Musk by the Commission and its Staff.”
He said the SEC indicated the enforcement action was “the result of a directive from their superiors”. He continued: “This series of events makes clear that the Commission is not motivated to seek the truth but instead is engaged in an improperly motivated campaign against Mr. Must and the individuals and companies associated with him.
“We demand to know who directed these actions,” he asked Gensler, “whether it was you or the White House.”
Spiro concludes that he and Musk will not be scared off, saying: “These tactics and misguided scheme will not intimidate us.”
Musk has taken digs at the SEC over the years since 2018 when he was sued after tweeting about taking his Tesla electric car company private. The Neuralink probe reportedly involves allegations that Musk misled investors about a brain implant it developed.
The Tesla founder stumped up more than a quarter of a billion dollars to boost Donald Trump’s election campaign and will be heading up a new cost-cutting task force in the new administration.
