Elon Musk has slammed reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating him and his brother Kimbal Musk over alleged insider trading allegations.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO described the suggestion an investigation was being carried out over his Twitter poll and subsequent stock sale as “absurd”.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the SEC is looking into whether Kimbal Musk was aware ahead of time that his brother was planning a Twitter poll that asked his followers whether he should sell 10 per cent of his Tesla stock.
He wrote on 6 November 2021: “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?”
He added in a follow-up tweet: “I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”
The poll showed 57.9 per cent of respondents supported him selling the stock, which he then did. Tesla stock was at an all-time high at the time of the poll, and later dropped by a third.
According to the report in the Journal, the day before Elon Musk posted the poll, Kimbal Musk sold $108 million worth of Tesla shares and the SEC will look into whether he was aware that Elon Musk may also sell shares.
Elon Musk has denied any suggestion his brother was aware of the poll in advance.
In an email to the Financial Times, Elon Musk said: “Kimbal had no idea I was going to do a Twitter poll... The idea that I would care about whether my brother might sell shares for a few million dollars less when my Twitter poll caused my own share sale to be over a billion dollars less is utterly absurd.”
He added that the investigation was an SEC enforcement officer “grinding his very tiny axe yet again”.
The Independent has contacted Elon and Kimbal Musk for comment.
