Questions hover over US probes into Musk's empire

Last month, in the waning days of the Biden administration, the SEC set a tight deadline of several days for demanding that Elon Musk pay a settlement or face civil charges relating to alleged securities violations during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022.

Musk broke the news himself in a social media post: "Oh Gary, how could you do this to me?" he wrote, referring to SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

The billionaire has long railed against government oversight, portraying himself as a victim of bureaucratic zealots stifling his companies' potentially life-saving innovations.

Musk's potential to have extraordinary clout with the new administration raises questions about the fate of federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, of which at least 20 are ongoing, according to three sources familiar with SpaceX and Tesla operations and the companies' interaction with the US government, as well as five current and former officials who have direct knowledge of individual probes into Musk's companies.

The inquiries include examinations of the alleged securities violations; questions over the safety of Tesla's Autopilot and Full SelfDriving (FSD) systems; potential animal-welfare violations in Neuralink's brain-chip experiments; and alleged pollution, hiring-discrimination and licensing problems at SpaceX.

Musk, Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink did not respond to comment requests. Before the election, Musk posted: "I have never asked for any favours, nor has he offered me any." A Trump-transition spokesperson called Musk a "brilliant" entrepreneur and said Trump's administration would ensure law and order, "treating all Americans equally."

Possible scenarios

The Musk-related cases could languish or be dropped by Trumpappointed agency and department heads, the current and former US officials said.