Elon Musk has reignited his feud with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in full view of the public as regulators take another look into his brain-chip venture Neuralink.
The billionaire, on Thursday night, posted a letter sent by his lawyer, Quinn Emmanuel’s Alex Spiro, to outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler accusing the agency of attempting to intimidate Musk.
According to the letter, the SEC has reopened an investigation into Neuralink, Musk’s startup that wants to implant brain chips into humans for a variety of functions—including restoring Neuralink’s only publicly disclosed patient, 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh, who has been able to use a Neuralink implant to play hands-free chess and video games like Mario Kart. A second patient was revealed in August but without many details.
The details of the investigation were not revealed in the letter, although some lawmakers have asked the agency to probe whether Musk committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of Neuralink’s implants.
Neuralink has also been fined by the Department of Transportation for violating rules on the movement of hazardous materials, and accused of torturing monkey test subjects. In June, a former employee sued Neuralink and accused it of hosting a discriminatory and hostile work environment, claiming that they had not been given proper protective gear while working with the monkeys.
Spiro’s letter also states that SEC staff had issued Musk a 48-hour settlement deadline to either accept a monetary fine or face charges over a probe into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now renamed as X.
“They indicated that this demand was the result of a directive from their superiors and that charges would be brought immediately unless Mr. Musk acquiesced,” Spiro wrote. “This demand follows a multi-year investigation and more than six years of harassment” from the SEC, he added.
Regulators are investigating whether Musk violated federal securities law in connection to his purchase of shares of Twitter, now known as X, as well as his statements and regulatory filings related to the company. Twitter shareholders have accused Musk of illegally delaying his disclosure that he purchased stock in order to keep prices low.
Musk has given testimony a few times in the SEC’s case, although the SEC needed to sue him last October to compel him to agree to give testimony a third time. A federal judge last month rejected the SEC’s bid to sanction Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony in September, although he did make an appearance the following month.
Earlier on Thursday, Musk wrote, “The SEC is just another weaponized institution doing political dirty work.” He has repeatedly criticized the SEC for its work regulating him and his companies over the years.
As part of his close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, Musk will be given a group that intends to scrutinize federal agencies and recommend ways to slash funding and regulations. The wealthiest man on the planet could use that role to influence funding or staffing cuts at the agencies that regulate his firms, such as the SEC or the Environmental Protection Agency.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Musk’s challenge to what he calls a “government-imposed muzzle” on his tweeting privileges, which came as part of a major 2018 settlement with the SEC. His lawyers have argued that the SEC overstepped when it enforced a consent decree requiring oversight of some of his social media posts.