Lawmakers to SEC: Musk Lied About Neuralink

Elon Musk could be facing yet another SEC securities fraud investigation, this time tied to his brain implant company Neuralink. Four Democratic lawmakers wrote to the SEC on Tuesday, claiming they've seen evidence, including veterinarian records, showing animals deaths occurred that "relate directly to the safety and marketability of Neuralink's brain-computer interface," per Reuters. Animals used in Neuralink experiments suffered "debilitating health effects" including paralysis, seizures, and brain swelling, and at least a dozen fit, young macaque monkeys were euthanized between 2018 and 2020 "as a direct result of problems with the company's implant," according to their letter.

Last year, Reuters reported via sources that Neuralink employees, allegedly under speed pressure from Musk, had killed 1,500 monkeys, sheep, and pigs over four years of experiments before receiving FDA approval to put brain implants in humans. This past September, around the time Neuralink put out a call for participants in its first human trial, Musk claimed "no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant." He also said the company had experimented on monkeys who were "close to death already" to "minimize risk to healthy monkeys." "Mr. Musk knows this statement is false," reads the letter sent to SEC Chair Gary Gensler and signed by Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, and Barbara Lee and Tony Cardenas of California, per Wired.

A former Neuralink employee previously told Wired that the monkeys used could not have been terminally ill because they underwent a year or more of training before receiving implants. The outlet also viewed autopsy reports showing one monkey suffered a fungal infection after a piece of a brain implant "broke off" during implantation and another's cerebral cortex was "focally tattered." The lawmakers' letter notes Neuralink raised more than $280 million in a funding round this year. "Given the scale of these investments and Mr. Musk's history of misleading investors, it is crucial that the SEC investigate," it reads. (The SEC accused Musk of securities fraud over false tweets about Tesla in 2018, resulting in a settlement.)