Washington DC - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday said it was suing Elon Musk, alleging he failed to disclose in a timely manner his ownership of more than 5% of Twitter stakes ahead of his 2022 takeover of the platform.

The SEC says Musk began buying up Twitter shares in early 2022, and crossed the 5% mark on March 14, 2022. By law, he should have disclosed this fact publicly within 10 calendar days, but he didn't announce that he already held 9% of the company until April 4, almost two weeks too late, the SEC said.

According to the SEC filing, Twitter's share price jumped by 27% following the disclosure. The agency analyzed Musk's purchases and concluded that he "underpaid by at least $150 million for his purchases of Twitter common stock in this period."

Shareholders who sold him their shares during this time would have suffered financial losses, the suit alleges.

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The SEC is demanding that Musk repay the sum – plus an additional penalty.

Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, countered that the far-right billionaire had "done nothing wrong." In a statement to the financial service Bloomberg, he also spoke of a "multi-year campaign of harassment" by the SEC against Musk.

It is unclear how the lawsuit will proceed. Musk is a close confidant of President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on January 20. The change in administration will also bring new leadership at the SEC.

The current chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has already announced he will be resigning from the post.

Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, later renaming it X.