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Elon Musk
Photo: MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS
When did Elon Musk acquire which shares in the US company Twitter?
And when did he disclose which numbers?
A court could soon deal with these questions.
A Twitter shareholder launched a potential class action lawsuit against Musk in a New York court on Tuesday.
This was announced by the competent law firm.
The plaintiff accused Musk on behalf of other Twitter shareholders of not having made his investment public within the statutory reporting period.
As a result, a stock market reaction was delayed and the share price was kept artificially low while he continued to expand his stake.
Musk has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
Strict regulations actually apply when holdings in US companies exceed the five percent threshold.
On April 4, Musk announced in a mandatory notification to the SEC that he held a good nine percent stake in Twitter.
This news caused the share price to rise sharply.
But according to the lawsuit, Musk's stake was already more than five percent on March 14 - without being reported within ten days by the deadline.
As a result, Musk was able to continue buying cheap Twitter shares until the April 4 announcement.
Investors who sold during this period were disadvantaged.
The law firm is now calling on investors to contact it if they sold Twitter shares between March 24 and April 1.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
On April 4, it was announced that Musk - the richest man in the world - had bought 9.2 percent of the shares in Twitter, becoming the largest shareholder.
Originally, he should have been given a seat on the board of directors.
But then Musk changed his mind at short notice.
He has more than 80 million followers on Twitter and keeps making headlines with his tweets.
On Saturday, for example, he asked, "Is Twitter dying?"
aar/dpa