New York
SEC sues Musk, saying he didn’t disclose Twitter ownership on time before buying it
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued billionaire Elon Musk, saying he failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner in early 2022, before buying the social media site.
As a result, the SEC alleges, Musk was able to underpay “by at least $150 million” for shares he bought after he should have disclosed his ownership of more than 5% of Twitter’s shares. Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and later renamed it X.
Musk started amassing Twitter shares in early 2022, and by March of that year, he owned more than 5%. At this point, the complaint says, he was required by law to disclose his ownership, but he failed to do so until April 4, 11 days after the report was due.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement that the lawsuit “is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case” since Musk has “done nothing wrong.” He called the lawsuit a “sham.”
“As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tack complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty,” Spiro added.
After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition.
The has SEC said that starting in April 2022, it authorized an investigation into whether any securities laws were broken in connection with Musk’s purchases of Twitter stock and his statements and SEC filings related to the company.
Before it filed the lawsuit, the SEC went to court in an attempt to compel Musk to testify as part of an investigation into his purchase of Twitter.
The SEC’s current chair, Gary Gensler, plans to step down from his post on Jan. 20 and it is not clear if the new administration will continue the lawsuit.
New York
Woman who stowed away on flight from NYC to Paris is indicted
NEW YORK (AP) — A Russian woman who was arrested after she stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris was indicted Monday by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was indicted on a stowaway charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
She was arrested in early December after she was returned to the United States a week after she was found aboard a Nov. 26 Delta Air Lines flight as it headed from JFK International Airport in New York to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
After she was returned to the United States, she was arrested again on Dec. 16 in Buffalo after authorities said she tried to enter Canada after cutting off a GPS monitoring device that was put on in New York when she was freed on bail. Since the second arrest, she has been held at the federal Brooklyn Detention Center.
Her court-appointed lawyer declined to comment on Monday.
The arrest of Dali was one of several recent breaches of security at airports nationwide. In the past month on separate occasions, people who hid in the wheel wells of planes have been found dead. And Dali was one of two stowaways who were arrested on different flights in November and December. In addition, a passenger last week opened an emergency door as a plane taxied in Boston.
Experts have said that a shortage of air traffic controllers, outdated plane-tracking technology and other problems are eroding the margin of safety in air travel.
But some experts also note that over 3 million people fly safely to their destinations each day and the last deadly commercial plane crash in the United States occurred in 2009.
Alabama
University professors and students sue over anti-DEI law
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — University professors and students in Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities and put limits on how race and gender can be discussed in the college classroom.
The complaint asserts the new law violates the First Amendment by placing viewpoint-based restrictions on educators’ speech and classroom lessons. Plaintiffs also argue the law is intentionally discriminatory against Black students because it targets concepts related to race and racism, limits programs that benefit Black students and eliminates campus spaces dedicated to student organizations that support Black students.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and professors and students at the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the law unconstitutional and block the state from enforcing it.
“The Alabama Legislature’s censorship of important discussions about race and gender inequalities and its attack on so-called DEI programs are an affront to the constitutional rights of Alabama faculty and students,” Antonio L. Ingram II, Legal Defense Fund senior counsel, said in a statement about the lawsuit.
“The harms are particularly salient for Black, LGBTQ+, and other faculty and students of color, whose histories and lived experiences have been dismissed, devalued, and undermined on their campuses,” Ingram added.
The Alabama measure, which took effect Oct. 1, is part of a wave of proposals from Republican lawmakers across the country taking aim at DEI programs on college campuses. Republicans say the programs deepen divisions and promote a particular political viewpoint. Opponents of the measure say it is a rollback of hard-won advances and programs that welcome underrepresented student populations. The lawsuit names Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and university trustees as defendants.
“The governor stands behind this legislation and its intent,” Ivey spokesperson Gina Maiola wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.
The Alabama law prohibits universities, K-12 school systems and state agencies from sponsoring DEI programs, defined as classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation.
The bill also prohibits classes and training that advocate for eight “divisive concepts” including that a person should feel guilt because of their race or that fault, blame or bias should be assigned to people based on race, religion, gender or national origin.
The lawsuit lists a litany of impacts on students and professors.
A social work professor said she was threatened with being fired unless she canceled a class project in which students had decided to analyze the potential negative impacts of the new state law. A political science professor said university officials told her that her course on poverty could violate the law because of its “perceived focus on learning about systematic racism,” according to the lawsuit.
Universities shuttered or rebranded their DEI offices in the wake of the law.
In Florida, a similar lawsuit filed several years ago challenged the state’s “Stop WOKE” act. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in 2022 blocking a portion of the law that restricted certain race-based conversations and analysis in colleges.
The case is on appeal, and in July the judge overturned a portion of the law related to private businesses.
New York
4 men charged in synagogue tunnel scuffle awaiting trial in April
NEW YORK (AP) — Four men accused of damaging a Brooklyn synagogue during a melee that followed the discovery of a secret tunnel at the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism are set to stand trial after turning down a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
The men face felony criminal mischief charges for their alleged role in a brawl last January that damaged parts of the famed complex, a deeply revered Jewish site that receives thousands of visitors annually.
At the time, scores of young men had gathered to protest an attempt by synagogue leaders to seal off a makeshift tunnel that some congregants had dug without permission in an effort to expand the worship space. When police arrived, prosecutors say some of the men ripped wooden siding off the wall, flung prayer books in the air and refused to leave the dusty excavation site.
Sixteen people were arrested following the altercation, which was partially captured on video, drawing widespread social media attention and curiosity.
At a court conference Monday, six defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to an order of protection that prohibits them from making “alterations, excavations or demolitions to the synagogue” for three years. Six others have previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
“This is a blemish on the Chabad movement as far as I’m concerned,” Judge Adam Perlmutter told the men, scolding them for not consulting with synagogue leadership about the expansion plan.
“They built buildings all over the world. It involves raising money, hiring architects, getting building permits and any rezoning as necessary. It is the only way that it gets done in this town.”
Four of the defendants — Yaakov Rothchild, Yisroel Binyamin, Yerachmiel Blumenfeld and Menachem Maidanchik — declined the plea deal offered by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. They are scheduled to face trial on April 28 on a felony charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 7 years.
Jonathan Strauss, an attorney for Blumenfeld, called the charges an “outrage” and described his client as a participant in a “civil dispute that’s been going on for many, many years.”
“He’s a 20-year-old kid,” Strauss said. “Kids don’t decide on their own to take the actions he did without being told to do so by much older and wiser people of authority.”
Proponents of the tunnel said they were carrying out the wishes of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the longtime leader of the Chabad movement and one of Judaism’s most influential figures, who spoke of expanding the densely packed religious space before his death in 1994. Some members of the Chabad community believe Schneerson is still alive and that he is the messiah.
The messianic view has long been rejected by Chabad’s administrators, who characterized the illicit passageway as a rogue act of youth vandalism.
“There is no righteous justification, theological or otherwise, for their lawless and violent behavior,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “We pray that they actually heed the Rebbe’s teachings of highest ethics and see the grave error of their ways, and make moral and religious amends for the immense pain and damage they’ve wrought.”
Stretching 60 feet (18.3 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide, the tunnel connected multiple buildings in the Jewish complex through holes cut in basement walls.
An investigation by the Department of Buildings found the excavation had destabilized multiple nearby buildings, prompting vacate orders. The tunnel has since been filled with cement.
SEC sues Musk, saying he didn’t disclose Twitter ownership on time before buying it
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued billionaire Elon Musk, saying he failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner in early 2022, before buying the social media site.
As a result, the SEC alleges, Musk was able to underpay “by at least $150 million” for shares he bought after he should have disclosed his ownership of more than 5% of Twitter’s shares. Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and later renamed it X.
Musk started amassing Twitter shares in early 2022, and by March of that year, he owned more than 5%. At this point, the complaint says, he was required by law to disclose his ownership, but he failed to do so until April 4, 11 days after the report was due.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement that the lawsuit “is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case” since Musk has “done nothing wrong.” He called the lawsuit a “sham.”
“As the SEC retreats and leaves office — the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tack complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form — an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty,” Spiro added.
After Musk signed a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, he tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to go through with the acquisition.
The has SEC said that starting in April 2022, it authorized an investigation into whether any securities laws were broken in connection with Musk’s purchases of Twitter stock and his statements and SEC filings related to the company.
Before it filed the lawsuit, the SEC went to court in an attempt to compel Musk to testify as part of an investigation into his purchase of Twitter.
The SEC’s current chair, Gary Gensler, plans to step down from his post on Jan. 20 and it is not clear if the new administration will continue the lawsuit.
New York
Woman who stowed away on flight from NYC to Paris is indicted
NEW YORK (AP) — A Russian woman who was arrested after she stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris was indicted Monday by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was indicted on a stowaway charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
She was arrested in early December after she was returned to the United States a week after she was found aboard a Nov. 26 Delta Air Lines flight as it headed from JFK International Airport in New York to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
After she was returned to the United States, she was arrested again on Dec. 16 in Buffalo after authorities said she tried to enter Canada after cutting off a GPS monitoring device that was put on in New York when she was freed on bail. Since the second arrest, she has been held at the federal Brooklyn Detention Center.
Her court-appointed lawyer declined to comment on Monday.
The arrest of Dali was one of several recent breaches of security at airports nationwide. In the past month on separate occasions, people who hid in the wheel wells of planes have been found dead. And Dali was one of two stowaways who were arrested on different flights in November and December. In addition, a passenger last week opened an emergency door as a plane taxied in Boston.
Experts have said that a shortage of air traffic controllers, outdated plane-tracking technology and other problems are eroding the margin of safety in air travel.
But some experts also note that over 3 million people fly safely to their destinations each day and the last deadly commercial plane crash in the United States occurred in 2009.
Alabama
University professors and students sue over anti-DEI law
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — University professors and students in Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs at universities and put limits on how race and gender can be discussed in the college classroom.
The complaint asserts the new law violates the First Amendment by placing viewpoint-based restrictions on educators’ speech and classroom lessons. Plaintiffs also argue the law is intentionally discriminatory against Black students because it targets concepts related to race and racism, limits programs that benefit Black students and eliminates campus spaces dedicated to student organizations that support Black students.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and professors and students at the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the law unconstitutional and block the state from enforcing it.
“The Alabama Legislature’s censorship of important discussions about race and gender inequalities and its attack on so-called DEI programs are an affront to the constitutional rights of Alabama faculty and students,” Antonio L. Ingram II, Legal Defense Fund senior counsel, said in a statement about the lawsuit.
“The harms are particularly salient for Black, LGBTQ+, and other faculty and students of color, whose histories and lived experiences have been dismissed, devalued, and undermined on their campuses,” Ingram added.
The Alabama measure, which took effect Oct. 1, is part of a wave of proposals from Republican lawmakers across the country taking aim at DEI programs on college campuses. Republicans say the programs deepen divisions and promote a particular political viewpoint. Opponents of the measure say it is a rollback of hard-won advances and programs that welcome underrepresented student populations. The lawsuit names Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and university trustees as defendants.
“The governor stands behind this legislation and its intent,” Ivey spokesperson Gina Maiola wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.
The Alabama law prohibits universities, K-12 school systems and state agencies from sponsoring DEI programs, defined as classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation.
The bill also prohibits classes and training that advocate for eight “divisive concepts” including that a person should feel guilt because of their race or that fault, blame or bias should be assigned to people based on race, religion, gender or national origin.
The lawsuit lists a litany of impacts on students and professors.
A social work professor said she was threatened with being fired unless she canceled a class project in which students had decided to analyze the potential negative impacts of the new state law. A political science professor said university officials told her that her course on poverty could violate the law because of its “perceived focus on learning about systematic racism,” according to the lawsuit.
Universities shuttered or rebranded their DEI offices in the wake of the law.
In Florida, a similar lawsuit filed several years ago challenged the state’s “Stop WOKE” act. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in 2022 blocking a portion of the law that restricted certain race-based conversations and analysis in colleges.
The case is on appeal, and in July the judge overturned a portion of the law related to private businesses.
New York
4 men charged in synagogue tunnel scuffle awaiting trial in April
NEW YORK (AP) — Four men accused of damaging a Brooklyn synagogue during a melee that followed the discovery of a secret tunnel at the global headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidic Judaism are set to stand trial after turning down a plea deal offered by prosecutors.
The men face felony criminal mischief charges for their alleged role in a brawl last January that damaged parts of the famed complex, a deeply revered Jewish site that receives thousands of visitors annually.
At the time, scores of young men had gathered to protest an attempt by synagogue leaders to seal off a makeshift tunnel that some congregants had dug without permission in an effort to expand the worship space. When police arrived, prosecutors say some of the men ripped wooden siding off the wall, flung prayer books in the air and refused to leave the dusty excavation site.
Sixteen people were arrested following the altercation, which was partially captured on video, drawing widespread social media attention and curiosity.
At a court conference Monday, six defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to an order of protection that prohibits them from making “alterations, excavations or demolitions to the synagogue” for three years. Six others have previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
“This is a blemish on the Chabad movement as far as I’m concerned,” Judge Adam Perlmutter told the men, scolding them for not consulting with synagogue leadership about the expansion plan.
“They built buildings all over the world. It involves raising money, hiring architects, getting building permits and any rezoning as necessary. It is the only way that it gets done in this town.”
Four of the defendants — Yaakov Rothchild, Yisroel Binyamin, Yerachmiel Blumenfeld and Menachem Maidanchik — declined the plea deal offered by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. They are scheduled to face trial on April 28 on a felony charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 7 years.
Jonathan Strauss, an attorney for Blumenfeld, called the charges an “outrage” and described his client as a participant in a “civil dispute that’s been going on for many, many years.”
“He’s a 20-year-old kid,” Strauss said. “Kids don’t decide on their own to take the actions he did without being told to do so by much older and wiser people of authority.”
Proponents of the tunnel said they were carrying out the wishes of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the longtime leader of the Chabad movement and one of Judaism’s most influential figures, who spoke of expanding the densely packed religious space before his death in 1994. Some members of the Chabad community believe Schneerson is still alive and that he is the messiah.
The messianic view has long been rejected by Chabad’s administrators, who characterized the illicit passageway as a rogue act of youth vandalism.
“There is no righteous justification, theological or otherwise, for their lawless and violent behavior,” said Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “We pray that they actually heed the Rebbe’s teachings of highest ethics and see the grave error of their ways, and make moral and religious amends for the immense pain and damage they’ve wrought.”
Stretching 60 feet (18.3 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide, the tunnel connected multiple buildings in the Jewish complex through holes cut in basement walls.
An investigation by the Department of Buildings found the excavation had destabilized multiple nearby buildings, prompting vacate orders. The tunnel has since been filled with cement.
