A US federal judge has approved a $1.5 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Elon Musk, formally ending a case first brought in 2022 over his acquisition of Twitter. The matter matters because it closes a long-running regulatory dispute over whether Musk broke disclosure rules while building his stake in the platform, and because the judge signed off only reluctantly, publicly questioning whether the penalty was adequate.

The original case, launched under former SEC chair Gary Gensler, focused on Musk's 11-day delay in disclosing his early investments in Twitter — a wait the regulator argued let him enlarge his stake more cheaply, potentially saving him up to $150 million at shareholders' expense. After leadership changes at both the SEC and the White House, the agency settled earlier this year, with Musk paying a $1.5 million civil penalty and admitting no wrongdoing. US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan approved the deal but voiced "significant misgivings," writing that while the settlement did not "make a mockery of judicial power," whether the SEC had done enough to hold Musk accountable was a matter "for our citizenry to decide at the ballot box."