Elon Musk claims he was coerced into settling with the SEC over his ‘funding secured’ tweet

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Musk wants a judge to throw out a consent decree with the SEC that requires him to get a lawyer's approval before he can post.

The decree was signed after Musk's funding was secured, and is being used to impose restrictions on his First Amendment rights. Musk is trying to block a subpoena from the SEC related to his Musk is trying to block a subpoena from the SEC related to his Musk is trying to block a subpoena from the SEC related to his

On August 7th of last year, Musk sent a notorious message in which he claimed to have the funding to take the company private. Since 2010, the company has been publicly traded.

The SEC launched an investigation after concluding that Musk had never discussed a going-private transaction of $420 per share with any potential funding source.

Ahawkins8223 is the author of a court filing about the SEC.

In a new court filing Tuesday, Musk said that he felt pressure to settle the issue with the SEC or risk the financial security of the company.

The SEC's complaint against me caused a scenario in which I was forced to sign the consent decree.

Musk said he was going to sign the decree until he knew it would affect his other companies. He relented after the SEC sued him for securities fraud and several major shareholders threatened to sell their stake in the company.

It felt wrong to do so, Musk said.

The SEC is looking into whether recent stock sales by Musk and his brother violated insider trading rules. According to The Wall Street Journal, the investigation began after Musk and his brother sold their shares in the company. On the day of the sale, Musk promised to abide by the results of the poll on whether he should sell a tenth of his stake in the company.

In this week's filing, Musk defended his actions, saying that he never lied to shareholders. I entered into the consent decree for the sake of the shareholders.

The conflict between Musk and the SEC has been going on for a while. The billionaire CEO accused the agency of subjecting him and his company to "endless, unfounded investigations." He also alleged that the agency was ignoring its commitment to distribute $40 million in fine money to shareholders. He claimed that the SEC was leaking information about federal investigations.