Musk, considered the world’s richest man, had argued his ‘incredibly busy’ schedule made attending the Washington, DC, case a burden.
Published On 2 Oct 2025
Billionaire Elon Musk has failed to persuade a federal judge in Washington, DC, to move a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit over the late disclosure of his growing Twitter stake to Texas after saying he was too busy to defend himself in the nation’s capital.
US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said on Thursday she “takes Mr. Musk’s convenience seriously” but that the world’s richest person has “considerable means” and spends at least 40 percent of his time outside Texas.
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“Indeed,” she wrote, “Mr. Musk’s brief itself indicates that he has spent substantial time here this year,” referencing when he ran the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump.
Sooknanan also said Texas judges have bigger caseloads than in her court and she could proceed with “reasonable alacrity”.
In seeking to move the case, Musk said he was an “incredibly busy individual” who works 80-plus-hour weeks and often sleeps in his office or factory. He argued that litigating in Washington, DC, would impose “substantial burdens”.
Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency. A spokesperson for the SEC had no comment, citing the government shutdown that began on Wednesday.
Musk’s fortune surpassed $500 billion for the first time that day, according to the publication Forbes.
The SEC sued Musk in January, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5-percent Twitter stake in early 2022 let him buy more than $500m of shares at artificially low prices.
It wants Musk to pay a civil fine and give up $150m he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting investors. Musk is seeking to dismiss the case. He bought all of Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and renamed it X.
Musk lives in Austin, Texas, and his companies Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring tunnel business are based in the state.
Sooknanan rejected Musk’s alternative proposal to move the SEC case to Manhattan, where former Twitter shareholders are suing him.
