So, it’s Friday, March 28, 2025, and Elon Musk just got some bad news—a federal judge in New York said, “Nope, you’re not dodging this one.” The case? A class-action lawsuit, Rasella v. Musk (Case No. 1:22-cv-03026-ALC-GWG), targets Elon Musk; former Twitter shareholders filed it due to his 2022 actions. They say he screwed them out of cash by keeping his Twitter stock buys hush-hush way past the SEC’s deadline. And today, Judge Andrew L. Carter in the Southern District of New York gave it the green light to keep rolling. Buckle up—this one’s a wild ride.
Here’s the gist: back in early 2022, Musk started scooping up Twitter shares like they were on sale at a Tesla merch shop. By March 24, he’d hit a 5% stake—big enough that SEC rules say you’ve got 10 days to spill the beans. But Musk? He waited 11 days, dropping the news on April 4 that he’d snagged 9.2%. Twitter’s stock shot up 27% that day, and shareholders like the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension crew are fuming—they sold low while Musk allegedly kept quiet, saving himself over $200 million by buying cheap before the spike. They’re calling it a “false pricing signal” that left them holding the bag.
Musk’s team’s like, “Chill, it was just a paperwork slip-up—no fraud vibes here.” But Judge Carter wasn’t buying it. In his 43-page smackdown, he pointed to a sketchy tweet Musk fired off on March 26, 2022, hinting he might buy a different social network. The problem is, he’d already loaded up on Twitter shares by then. Carter’s take? That tweet could’ve been a deliberate head-fake to throw folks off, and it’s “more likely than not” Musk was playing fast and loose with the truth. Ouch.
This isn’t Musk’s only headache—the SEC’s been on his case too, filing a separate suit in January over the same late disclosure, claiming he pocketed $150 million by snagging shares on the down-low. Musk eventually took Twitter private for $44 billion in October 2022, flipped it into X, and now he’s merging it with xAI in an $80 billion-plus-$33 billion all-stock deal, announced today. Talk about multitasking.
So, what’s next? This lawsuit’s moving ahead, and Musk’s got to face the music. The plaintiffs—led by those Oklahoma firefighters—want damages for selling at “artificially deflated prices.” Musk and his Excession office (run by Jared Birchall) haven’t piped up yet, but the stakes are high. Could this dent his $417 billion fortune (Forbes’ latest)? Probably not, but it’s another PR mess for the guy who’s juggling Tesla, SpaceX, and Trump’s inner circle. Keep your eyes peeled—this one’s just heating up.
