Billionaire Elon Musk sold nearly $4 billion (€3.95 billion) worth of shares in the electric car company, SEC filings showed on Tuesday, more than a week after he closed a deal acquiring Twitter.

He had funded much of his $44 billion (€43.7 billion) Twitter purchase by selling Tesla stock.

Musk has been pushing for ways to pay for the massive deal, for which he took on billions of dollars in debt and earlier sold $15.5 billion (€15.4 billion) worth of shares in Tesla.

The documents filed with the SEC showed that he had disposed of more than 19 million shares, worth more than $3.9 billion.

Musk brings changes to Twitter

Prior to the acquisition, there was considerable back and forth between Musk and the social media giant. Musk had initially tried to back out of the deal, saying he had been misled by Twitter about the number of fake "bot" allegations, rejected by the company. 

Twitter filed a lawsuit holding Musk accountable for his prior agreement, after which he renewed his takeover plan.

After taking control of Twitter, he fired top executives and half of the 7,500 staff of Twitter, as he launched an overhaul.

The billionaire has announced his desire to make money from the platform, including plans to charge users $8 for verified accounts.

His actions after taking over Twitter have sparked international concern. UN rights chief Volker Turk has urged Musk to make respect for human rights a priority for the social network.

tg/sms  (AFP, Reuters)