Key facts
- The SEC asked a Manhattan federal judge to close a fund built from the $40 million in civil fines Musk and Tesla paid.
- A claims administrator distributed $41.53 million, including interest and after fees, to 3,350 eligible claimants.
- Eligible claimants recovered 51.7% of their approved claims; 3,046 claims were rejected.
- About $449,000 left in the Fair Fund will go to the US Treasury, the SEC said.
- Neither Musk nor Tesla admitted wrongdoing in the 2018 settlement.
- A separate SEC case over Musk's late disclosure of Twitter share purchases was settled for $1.5 million.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday that it had completed distributions from a $40 million fund created from civil fines paid by Elon Musk and Tesla, and asked a federal judge in Manhattan to close the Fair Fund.
The fund stems from the SEC's 2018 case charging Musk with securities fraud over posts on August 7, 2018, in which he said he had "funding secured" to potentially take Tesla private. The SEC said the shares closed more than 6% higher than when he began posting, and later fell after it became clear Musk had not lined up financing. Musk and Tesla each paid a $20 million civil fine under the settlement, designated for investor victims of the alleged fraud; neither admitted wrongdoing. Musk also agreed to let Tesla lawyers review some Twitter posts in advance and to give up his role as chairman.
The SEC said a claims administrator distributed $41.53 million, including interest and after deducting fees, to 3,350 eligible claimants. Those claimants received 51.7% of their approved claims because their losses exceeded the Fair Fund's size, and another 3,046 claims were rejected. About $449,000 remaining will go to the US Treasury. "Distribution of the Fair Fund is now complete," the SEC said in the filing.
The matter is separate from an SEC case accusing Musk of waiting 11 days too long in March and April 2022 to disclose his early purchases of Twitter shares. Musk settled that case by having a trust in his name pay $1.5 million, also without admitting wrongdoing, and a federal judge approved that settlement in July while expressing "significant misgivings" about whether the SEC let Musk off too easily.