Elon Musk was ordered by a U.S. judge to face most of a lawsuit claiming he defrauded former Twitter shareholders last year by waiting too long to disclose that he had invested in the social media company, which he later bought and renamed X.
In a decision made public on Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter said shareholders in the proposed class action could try to prove that Musk intended to defraud them by waiting 11 days past a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission deadline to reveal he had bought 5% of Twitter's shares.
Failure to disclose is objective fact. The circumstances of which will either be aggravating or mitigating to whatever fine is tossed his way.
I sincerely doubt someone like Musk, someone who's entire life revolves around the acquisition of wealth and the utilization of investment funds, can use "I was too busy and forgot to perform regulatory obligations!" defense.
This isn't really about a fine. Musk is being sued by other another company. They claim that Musk saved $200m on his Twitter purchase by failing to disclose in time. In other words he bought some shares that would have cost him more if he had disclosed.
Of course his savings was someone else's loss of potential profit, and they are suing Musk to get that profit back.