SEC 'reopens' investigation into Neuralink, says Elon Musk's lawyer

Musk has long sparred with SEC and last year four lawmakers asked to investigate whether Musk committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about brain implant developed by Neuralink.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week has reopened an investigation into Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink, according to a letter shared by Musk on Thursday on social media platform X. 

The Dec 12 letter from Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro to outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler also noted that the commission had issued a settlement demand and that Musk had been given 48 hours to accept making a monetary payment or face charges on multiple counts. 

The amount demanded was not in the letter. 

Musk has long sparred with the SEC and last year four lawmakers asked the commission to investigate whether Elon Musk committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of a brain implant developed by Neuralink. 

How much traction the SEC would gain in any action against Musk is unclear. 

The billionaire entrepreneur who also heads Tesla and SpaceX is set to gain extraordinary influence after spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Donald Trump win November's presidential election. His companies are expected to be well insulated from regulation and enforcement measures. 

Trump has also appointed Musk to a task force that plans a sweeping overhaul of the US government. 

Spiro wrote in the letter that he and Musk would not be intimidated by the SEC and that they reserved their legal rights. 

The SEC and Neuralink did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours. 

Musk's tussles with the SEC include the regulator's probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, now X. 

A federal judge in November rejected the SEC's request to sanction Elon Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony in relation to the matter. 

The commission also sued Musk in 2018 over his Twitter posts about taking Tesla private. He settled that lawsuit by paying a $20 million fine, agreeing to let Tesla lawyers review some posts in advance and stepping down as Tesla's chairman. 

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)