affix his signature to U.S. currency
Treasury Department Gensler served in the
United States Department of the Treasury as
Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets from 1997 to 1999, then as Undersecretary for Domestic Finance from 1999 to 2001. As Assistant Secretary, Gensler served as a senior advisor to the
Secretary of the Treasury in developing and implementing the federal government's policies for debt management and the sale of U.S. government securities. As
Undersecretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance, Gensler advised and assisted Treasury Secretaries
Robert Rubin and
Lawrence Summers on aspects of domestic finance, including formulating policy and legislation in the areas of financial institutions, public debt management,
capital markets, government financial management services, federal lending, fiscal affairs, government sponsored enterprises, and community development. After some initial opposition to Gensler's nomination amongst the progressive members of the Democratic caucus, Gensler was approved by the U.S. Senate in an 88–6 confirmation vote. Gensler was sworn in on May 26, 2009, pledging to work to "urgently close the gaps in our laws to bring much-needed transparency and regulation to the over-the-counter derivatives market to lower risks, strengthen market integrity and protect investors". Gensler was described as "one of the leading reformers after the financial crisis". Upon becoming chairman, Gensler began leading the Obama Administration's effort "to start policing the Wild West of finance: the murky market for over-the-counter derivatives". By the spring of 2010, the momentum in Congress was toward Gensler's vision for derivatives oversight, He oversaw the agency as it wrote 68 new rules, orders and guidances and as its reach extended from a $35 trillion futures market to a $400 trillion swaps market.
Enforcement and Libor investigation Gensler led a revitalization of the enforcement division of the agency, most notably in its prosecution of an enforcement case regarding manipulation of
Libor, the London interbank offered rate. Early in his tenure, Gensler listened to tape recordings of two
Barclays employees as they discussed plans to report false
interest rates in an effort to manipulate Libor. It is used as a reference rate for many financial products, including adjustable rate mortgages, student loans, and car payments.
MF Global Gensler was Chair of the CFTC during the collapse of
MF Global. Gensler recused himself from the case, because of his previous relationship with MF Global's Chairman and CEO,
Jon Corzine.
Frankel Fiduciary Prize For his work to reform the
financial regulatory system, The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard awarded Gensler with the 2014 Tamar Frankel Fiduciary Prize.
Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission In 2017, Gensler was selected by Maryland Senate President
Thomas V. Miller Jr. and House Speaker
Michael E. Busch to serve as Chairman of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission, which assessed the impact of potential changes to federal financial industry laws, regulations, budgets, and policies on the state. Under Gensler's leadership, the Commission recommended changes to State law to enhance consumer financial protections, including enhancing standards of care, clarifying State law to set standards for student loan servicers, and protecting Maryland buyers of manufactured homes. In 2018, student loan legislation recommended by the Commission established a student loan ombudsman, added the federal Military Lending Act and the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to state law, increased civil monetary penalties for violations, and codified some modifications on debt collection laws. In 2019, the state enacted additional Commission-recommended legislation to create a Student Borrower Bill of Rights to protect students from predatory practices.
SEC In November 2020, Gensler was named a volunteer member of the
Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the
Federal Reserve, the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the
National Credit Union Administration, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission. On March 11, 2021, his nomination was reported out of the
Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee by a vote of 14–10. On April 14, 2021, his nomination was confirmed in the
Senate by a vote of 53–45 to fill former chair
Jay Clayton's term expiring in June 2021. On April 19, 2021, the Senate confirmed Gensler to a 5-year term through 2026 by a vote of 54–45. However, Gensler announced on November 21, 2024 that he would step down at the end of Biden's term effective January 20, 2025.
Cryptocurrency On September 14, 2021, Gensler testified before the
U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee that the SEC was in need of large staffing increases to address regulatory concerns related to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and Gensler likened the cryptocurrency market to a "
Wild West". On September 21, Gensler remarked to
The Washington Post that most cryptocurrency projects dealing with securities should fall under the regulatory purview of the SEC, though the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), of which he was a former chair, was better suited for some others. On October 5, Gensler testified before the
U.S. House Financial Services Committee that the SEC had no plans to ban cryptocurrencies. On October 15, the SEC approved the first
bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States after Gensler announced support for doing so the previous August. Gensler is opposed to approving
pure play bitcoin ETFs due to bitcoin remaining subject to
fraud and
market manipulation. After a period of high anticipation and speculation from financial news outlets and markets about the SEC approval of a spot bitcoin ETF, at 4:11pm ET on January 9, 2024, a post was published to the SEC's X account announcing the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs. By 4:26 pm, SEC chair Gary Gensler had issued a retraction and said the agency's account had been "compromised," and that an "unauthorized tweet was posted." In the minutes after the fake post was published, the price of bitcoin jumped around 2.5% and led to an overall $40 billion swing in the combined value of bitcoin in circulation.
The Economist identified the risks presented by
decentralized finance and crypto-assets valued at $2.5 trillion as a challenge for Gensler in 2022, and noted his experience in teaching blockchain technology. On April 4, 2022, Gensler announced that the SEC would begin to register and regulate cryptocurrency exchanges at a
University of Pennsylvania Law School students association conference. On May 11, Gensler stated in an interview with
Bloomberg News that cryptocurrency exchanges were
market making against the interests of their customers after warning the
U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that cryptocurrency exchanges were engaged in
front running the previous May. Following testimony before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on May 18, Gensler warned in a post-hearing press conference that many cryptocurrencies were going to fail and expressed concern that it could undermine confidence in the traditional financial markets. On June 7,
U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (
D–
NY) and
Cynthia Lummis (
R–
WY) introduced a bill in the
117th U.S. Congress to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies that would treat most digital assets as
commodities subject to oversight from the CFTC and would not have cryptocurrencies subject to oversight from the SEC unless a cryptocurrency's holders were entitled to the same privileges as corporate investors. At a conference hosted by
The Wall Street Journal on June 14, Gensler expressed concern that the Lummis-Gillibrand bill could inadvertently undermine stock market and mutual fund protections, noted that cryptocurrency companies were already engaging in behaviors overseen by the SEC, and argued that some digital assets are securities necessitating oversight from the SEC rather than commodities (even if the overwhelming majority of tokens offered by cryptocurrency exchanges are commodities). On January 12, 2023, the SEC filed a complaint in Southern New York U.S. District Court that both
Genesis and
Gemini of offering and selling unregistered securities. On November 28, 2024,
Finance Research Letters published research by economists indicating that unexpected SEC regulatory interventions caused prolonged negative reactions in crypto-asset markets. The SEC's actions under Gensler would later be referred to as being part of the federal government's
War on Crypto, leading the issue of cryptocurrency regulation to become a wedge issue in the
2024 presidential election.
Financial regulation On May 6, 2021, Gensler testified before the
U.S. House Financial Services Committee about the
GameStop short squeeze,
Robinhood Markets,
Archegos Capital Management,
market concentration among market makers for
payment for order flow,
conflict of interest in
best execution for trades with PFOF, trading
gamification in
mobile trading apps and
high-frequency trading, the SEC consolidated
audit trail,
data security, usage of
social media and the internet in market manipulation, and ESG disclosure rules (including those proposed by the
Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures led by former
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg). On May 25, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D–MA) and Bernie Sanders (I–VT) sent a letter to Gensler urging the SEC to remove and replace the sitting members of the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), arguing that Trump Administration appointees had politicized the agency and compromised its independence. On June 4, the SEC voted to remove William Duhnke as PCAOB Chair and began an investigation on June 17 of his handling of internal complaints while serving as PCAOB Chair. On June 9, Gensler announced that the SEC would review market structure following the GameStop short squeeze and the
AMC Entertainment Holding, Inc. meme stock short squeeze, and Gensler signaled in an interview with ''
Barron's the following August that a complete ban on payment for order flow was being considered by the review. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal'' CFO Network event on June 7, Gensler emphasized the need for new restrictions and rules to reduce the risk of improper insider trading. On June 30, Robinhood Markets agreed to pay $70 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) that alleged that the company had misled its customers, approved ineligible and inexperienced traders for options strategies, and did not supervise its technology properly to prevent outages. On July 29, Robinhood Markets launched an IPO for its stock on the
Nasdaq. On August 6, the SEC approved new rules implemented by
Nasdaq, Inc. requiring that companies listed on its exchanges to include at least one female member on their boards of directors and at least one racial minority or LGBTQ board member and to require disclosure of statistics measuring the
diversity of their board membership. This rule was struck down by the courts who determined the SEC overstepped its role. On August 27, the SEC launched a review of strategies and practices used by online brokers and investment advisors that promote user engagement with trading gamification. On December 2, the SEC finalized a rule to implement the
Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. In response to record stock sales by CEOs and other corporate executives that year, Gensler proposed an agency rule for a mandatory 120-day window for corporate executives who are changing existing or adopting new portfolio managements plans on December 15. On January 27, 2022,
Southern Florida U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga dismissed a lawsuit filed by investors against Robinhood Markets for acting negligently during the GameStop short squeeze. On February 11, the SEC met to discuss more than 50 proposed rules changes (focused primarily on
hedge funds and
private equity) including a requirement that the disclosure documents of
stock corporations must include a written statement of company
cybersecurity risk management policies and disclosure of any
cyberattacks. On June 8, Gensler announced rules changes to require that market makers disclose more data about
payments for order flow (PFOF) and the timing for the
best execution of
trades, as well as to require direct competition among
stockbrokers executing trades for
retail investors at a conference hosted by
Piper Sandler Companies. On May 12,
FTX CEO
Sam Bankman-Fried disclosed a
Schedule 13D filing with the SEC to buy a 7.6 percent ownership stake in Robinhood Markets. On June 27, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that no
mergers and acquisitions discussions were being held with Robinhood Markets about an acquisition (despite reports of internal discussion to do so and reports of the company approaching at least three stock trading start-ups about acquisitions). On July 20, the
Social Science Research Network released a
preprint written by economists
Maureen O'Hara, Robert P. Bartlett, and Justin McCrary that suggested that Robinhood Markets traders caused a surge in trading volume of
Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares in February and March 2021.
Greenwashing, ESG, and carbon neutrality On January 28, 2021,
Microsoft disclosed an investment in
Climeworks, a
direct air capture company, one year after the company announced a strategy to take the company
carbon negative by 2030 and to remove all the carbon from the environment the company has emitted since 1975 by 2050. In 2021 and 2022, an index constructed by researchers at the
University of Cambridge showed that
bitcoin mining consumed more electricity during the course of the year than the entire nations of
Argentina (a
G20 country) and the
Netherlands. On February 8, 2021,
Tesla, Inc. disclosed to the SEC that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of
bitcoin. On April 15,
Apple Inc. announced the creation of $200 million
forestry fund as part of the company's strategy to become
carbon neutral by 2030. On February 7, 2022, the NewClimate Institute, a German environmental policy think tank, published a survey evaluating the transparency and progress of the climate strategies and pledges announced by 25 major companies in the United States that found that the climate pledges of Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple were unsubstantiated and misleading. On June 23, 2020,
Amazon.com, Inc. announced a $2 billion venture fund to invest in startup companies developing strategies to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions as part of a strategy to be climate neutral company by 2040, after announcing a $10 million investment to two projects in the
Appalachian Mountains the previous April to
manage their lands to maximize greater carbon removal, the first investment from a $100 million initiative to support
reforestation and
habitat restoration. On June 30, 2021, Amazon released its annual company annual sustainability report that showed that company net carbon emissions grew by 19 percent from 2019 to 2020. On February 11, 2022,
Western Louisiana U.S. District Court Judge James D. Cain Jr. issued a preliminary
injunction in
Louisiana v. Biden (2022) in favor of the plaintiffs to block federal agency requirements to assess the societal costs of greenhouse gas emissions in regulatory actions under
Executive Order 13990. On March 16, the
U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the decision following an appeal by the
U.S. Justice Department, and on May 26, the
U.S. Supreme Court issued an order without comment or opposition dismissing an appeal filed by the plaintiffs to reverse the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. On February 15,
ConocoPhillips announced a pilot program to sell its
flare gas to a company operating a bitcoin mine in the
Bakken Formation region of
North Dakota as part of an industry initiative to reduce routine flaring to zero by 2030. On March 21, the SEC approved rules requiring the disclosure of stock corporation
climate risks and net contribution to greenhouse gas emissions in
10-K forms. On the same day,
The Wall Street Journal criticized Gensler for proposing legislation requiring public companies to disclose climate risks. "The proposal ... is contrary to SEC history, securities law, and sound regulatory practice", the paper wrote. It accused the SEC chairman of trying "to regulate private companies by the back door" and following the bidding of
BlackRock and other investors. On March 26, CNBC reported that
ExxonMobil started a pilot program in January 2021 with Crusoe Energy Systems to also divert its flare gas into generators producing electricity to power shipping containers full of bitcoin miners in the North Dakota Bakken region (which it expanded the following July) as part of the same industry initiative with ConocoPhillips, and that Crusoe has stated reduces
carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 63 percent as compared with continued flaring. On April 12,
Alphabet Inc.,
Meta Platforms,
Shopify,
McKinsey & Company, and
Stripe, Inc. announced a $925 million
advance market commitment of permanent
carbon removal from companies that are developing the technology over the next 9 years. On May 19, after Tesla was removed from the
S&P 500 ESG Index by
S&P Dow Jones Indices, Tesla CEO
Elon Musk posted a
tweet to his
Twitter account criticizing the decision and, in noting that ExxonMobil was rated within the top 10 constituent companies in the index by
weight, accused ESG of being a scam. On May 25, the SEC proposed two rules changes to ESG
investment fund qualifications to prevent
greenwashing marketing practices and to increase disclosure requirements for achieving ESG impacts. On June 10, the SEC was reportedly investigating the ESG investment funds of Goldman Sachs for potential greenwashing. After noting that his company had launched a division to commercialize
carbon capture in testimony before the
U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee on October 28, 2021, ExxonMobil CEO
Darren Woods discussed in an interview with
CNBC journalist
David Faber on June 24 that part of ExxonMobil's long-term strategy to remain a profitable company while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
plastic pollution was to invest in carbon capture and storage technology with a network hub in
Houston and to remain a
plastics producer while making improvements to
waste management. On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled in
West Virginia v. EPA (2022) that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not have the authority under the
Clean Air Act to devise a broad
cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions by power plants that the agency attempted to promulgate under the
Clean Power Plan and instead that the authority to do so rests with the
U.S. Congress.
Social media On March 2, 2021,
Rocket Mortgage saw a more than 70 percent spike in its stock price during the
GameStop short squeeze due to a surge in trading following discussion of the company on
r/wallstreetbets, but the Rocket Mortgage stock price reverted to its pre-surge level the next day. On September 14, Gensler announced the imminent release of an agency report on the short squeeze in testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. Also in October 2021, eight
whistleblower complaints alleging
securities fraud by
Facebook, Inc. were filed anonymously with the SEC by
Whistleblower Aid on behalf of former company employee
Frances Haugen after Haugen
leaked thousands of company documents to
The Wall Street Journal the previous month. After publicly revealing her identity on
60 Minutes, Haugen testified before the
U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security about the content of the leaked documents and the complaints. After the company renamed itself as
Meta Platforms, Whistleblower Aid filed two additional securities fraud complaints with the SEC against the company on behalf of Haugen in February 2022. On November 18, 2021, U.S. Senator
Elizabeth Warren (D–
MA) sent a letter to Gensler requesting that the SEC investigate possible securities law violations in the conduct of a merger between the Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a
special-purpose acquisition company, and the
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) announced on October 20. On December 6, an ongoing SEC investigation into the DWAC–TMTG merger was disclosed by DWAC in a filing with the agency. On February 18, 2022, the
U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against
Bitconnect that the
Securities Act of 1933 extends to
targeted solicitation using
social media. In a securities filing dated June 8 and disclosed to the
Florida State Department Corporations Division, DWAC stated that
Donald Trump and
Donald Trump Jr. had been removed from the company board of directors. On June 14, DWAC disclosed that the SEC issued a subpoena for additional company documents and information about the merger. On June 27, DWAC disclosed that the SEC issued an additional subpoena as well as an investigation by the
U.S. Justice Department. On July 19,
Amazon. filed a lawsuit against more than 10,000
Facebook group administrators for distributing fake
user reviews of Amazon products in violation of Facebook company policies.
Tesla and Twitter On November 6, 2021,
Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk posted a
tweet on his
Twitter account that conducted a poll of his
followers over whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. On December 3, Musk had sold approximately $10 billion worth of his Tesla shares. On December 6, the SEC opened an investigation of Tesla in response to a whistleblower complaint alleging the company did not properly
disclose to its shareholders
fire risks associated with its
solar panels. On February 7, 2022, Tesla disclosed in a filing to the SEC that the agency had issued a
subpoena to the company for information about company governance policies to comply with an October 2018 settlement with the agency in a securities fraud lawsuit over a tweet Musk posted on his Twitter account about taking Tesla
private in August 2018 that the agency subsequently requested that Musk be held in
contempt of court for violating in February 2019 (that resulted in an amended settlement the following April), and that the agency sent letters to the company in 2019 and in 2020 warning the company that tweets Musk posted in July 2019 and in May 2020 were in violation of. On February 17, Musk's attorneys filed a letter with the presiding judge in the 2018 settlement alleging that the SEC was attempting to
chill his
First Amendment right to
freedom of speech and that the SEC had failed to pay Tesla shareholders the $40 million in fines the agency had assessed from him and the company under the terms of the settlement, which the SEC disputed in a letter filed with the court in response on February 18. On February 21, Musk's attorneys filed a second letter with the court alleging the SEC had illegally leaked information from an investigation into him. On February 24,
Southern New York U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan issued an order rejecting requests made by Musk in his February 21 letter, while the SEC was in the process of conducting an
insider trading investigation of Musk and his brother
Kimbal Musk for a $108 million sale of Tesla stock before Elon's November 2021 tweet. On March 8, Musk filed a motion with the court to have the 2018 settlement with the SEC terminated. On March 22, the SEC filed a response to Musk's March 8 filing requesting that Judge Nathan deny Musk's motion, that its subpoenas were lawful, and disclosed that the agency was investigating Musk for his November 2021 tweet. On March 29, Musk filed another letter with the court reiterating his First Amendment concerns. On April 4, Musk submitted a
13G filing with the SEC to purchase a 9.2% passive ownership stake in
Twitter, Inc., but then submitted a
Schedule 13D beneficial ownership filing reserving the right to purchase a larger stake in the company with the agency the next day (and because the disclosure was filed later than an SEC deadline, it may have made Musk an additional $156 million). On April 13, a group of Twitter shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk for failing to disclose his ownership stake to the SEC within the agency's prescribed deadline. On April 14, Musk filed an
offer to buy Twitter, Inc. with the SEC for $43 billion and take the company private (which was revised a week later to $46.5 billion). On April 15,
Northern California U.S. District Court Judge Edward M. Chen ruled in a lawsuit filed by Tesla shareholders against Musk and the company that his August 2018 tweet was a knowingly made
false statement of fact (the day after Musk stated at the 2022
TED conference that it was not). On April 22,
Republican Conference members of the
U.S. House Judiciary Committee wrote a letter to the Twitter board of directors requesting that company executives preserve all company records related to Musk's acquisition proposal. On April 25, the Twitter board of directors unanimously agreed to Musk's acquisition proposal at $44 billion. On April 27, Southern New York U.S. District Court Judge
Lewis J. Liman denied Musk's motion to terminate the 2018 settlement. On April 30, Musk filed an
amicus brief along with
Dallas Mavericks team owner
Mark Cuban in support of a petition to the
U.S. Supreme Court by a former
chief financial officer at
Xerox to review a 2003 settlement the Xerox CFO made with the SEC that includes a
gag order that the plaintiff argues is in violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. On May 13, Musk posted a tweet that his acquisition of Twitter would be put on hold until statistics about
spambots and
fake accounts on
Twitter were verified, while the SEC and the
Federal Trade Commission began investigations of Musk for violating filing deadlines for his Twitter passive ownership stake and his subsequent company acquisition proposal respectively. On May 16, Twitter CEO
Parag Agrawal posted a tweet detailing company policies for addressing fake and spam accounts in response to Musk (to which Musk posted a tweet in return). On May 17, Musk tweeted that the Twitter acquisition would not move forward until he had greater clarification about the ratio of fake and spam accounts on the site, later tweeting a poll of his followers' opinions of Twitter, Inc. statements about the ratio of fake and spam accounts in filings to the SEC (and where Musk posted a comment in the poll thread calling upon the SEC to investigate whether the company's statements disclosing the ratio in filings to the agency are true). On the same day, Twitter submitted a new filing with the SEC that stated that Musk had met with Twitter executives for three days before he announced his acquisition proposal. On May 24,
Reuters reported that since the April 2019 amended settlement between Musk and the SEC, agency officials have consciously chosen not to pursue legal action against Musk for violating the terms of the agreement and to write letters urging compliance instead due to remarks made by the presiding judge during the case. On May 25, Twitter shareholders filed a
class action lawsuit against Musk and Twitter, Inc. alleging market manipulation and violation of
California corporate laws. On June 3, a dozen political advocacy groups (including the
Center for Countering Digital Hate,
GLAAD, and
MediaJustice) announced a campaign to block Musk's Twitter acquisition proposal by pressuring government agencies to review the acquisition, persuading Tesla shareholders to take legal action against the proposal, and asking advertisers to boycott the platform. On June 6, Musk's attorneys disclosed a letter to the SEC accusing Twitter executives of a
material breach of contract due to lack of information provided about fake and spam accounts and claimed to reserve Musk's right to terminate the merger agreement (despite Musk waiving
due diligence in his offer to buy the company on April 14). On July 1, an
investment management group affiliated with the
pension funds of
Strategic Organizing Center labor unions wrote a letter to the SEC requesting that the agency investigate Tesla for violating the terms of the October 2018 settlement with the agency after the company disclosed in its annual
proxy statement (filed with the SEC the previous month) that
Oracle Corporation CEO
Larry Ellison did not intend to stand for re-election as company chairman and that the company did not intend to replace his seat on the board (thereby reducing its size). On July 8, Musk filed a letter with the SEC sent to Twitter executives notifying them that he intended to terminate his acquisition proposal of the company, to which Twitter Board Chairman
Bret Taylor posted a tweet stating that the company would continue to attempt to close the transaction and that it would pursue legal action to enforce the merger. On July 12, Twitter Inc. filed a lawsuit against Musk in the
Delaware Court of Chancery to enforce the acquisition agreement. On July 14, the SEC disclosed a letter sent to Musk on June 2 for additional information about his 13D filing on April 5. On July 15, Musk filed a motion requesting that the court not grant Twitter's request for a
speedy trial, while Twitter submitted an amended proxy statement with the SEC that urged company shareholders to approve the acquisition agreement. On July 18, Twitter submitted a filing with the court stating that Musk's request to deny a speedy trial was a tactical delay, that Musk's tactics were harming Twitter's reputation and share price, and urged the court to schedule the earliest possible trial date. On July 19, the court ruled in Twitter's favor and scheduled a five-day trial to take place the following October. On July 22, Twitter released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2022 that showed a 1 percent decline in year-over-year company revenue and that company earnings were lower than analysts' expectations (which the company partially attributed to uncertainty created by the acquisition agreement). On July 25, Tesla disclosed in a filing with the SEC that the company had received a second subpoena from the agency on June 13 with respect to the 2018 settlement. On July 26, Twitter disclosed in filing with the SEC that the company had scheduled a shareholder meeting on September 13, 2022, to vote on the acquisition agreement. In a complaint filed by Whistleblower Aid with the SEC, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission on July 6, former Twitter security officer
Peiter Zatko alleged that specific Twitter executives—including Parag Agrawal and certain board members—have repeatedly made false and misleading statements to its board, shareholders, users, regulators, and the public about privacy, security, and content moderation on the platform since 2011 in violation of the
Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 and SEC disclosure rules including misrepresentations to Musk during the course of the acquisition bid (citing Agrawal's May 16 tweet detailing company policies for addressing fake and spam accounts). ==Author==