A federal judge has signed off on Elon Musk's $1.5 million settlement with the SEC, but she made it clear she wasn't thrilled about it. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan approved the penalty despite what she called “significant misgivings,” according to Bloomberg. The settlement resolves an SEC lawsuit filed in early 2025, just days before Donald Trump took office, over Musk's failure to timely disclose his growing stake in Twitter back in 2022. The SEC argued that Musk's delay ultimately saved him a whopping $150 million. Under the terms of the May settlement, a trust in Musk's name pays the $1.5 million penalty, with no admission of wrongdoing. Sooknanan had previously questioned whether Musk was getting “special treatment” from the Trump administration, given that Musk helped bankroll Trump's 2024 campaign. In her opinion, she noted that the court's role was limited to evaluating whether the settlement meets “minimum standards of fairness and reasonableness” or “make[s] a mockery of judicial power.” She concluded that while she had serious reservations, she couldn't say the settlement crossed that threshold. So Musk gets to write a check that's 1% of his alleged savings, and everyone moves on.