Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Brazil's Supreme Court said Friday it had ordered banks to transfer funds from Starlink and X accounts to pay fines imposed by the court on social media giant Elon Musk.
The court's top judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and a panel of five other judges found that X repeatedly violated Brazilian law when it refused to appoint a legal representative in the country, and when it refused to remove content or profiles from its platform that the court determined were harmful to Brazil's democratic institutions.
The court transferred nearly 18.4 million Brazilian reals, or about $3.3 million, from the accounts. Musk acquired X, then known as Twitter, in 2022. Starlink is the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX.
Following the transfers, the court ordered the release of the frozen bank accounts and assets of X and Starlink, saying there was no longer a need to hold them.
Court X suspended the case at the end of August, and the suspension remains in place.
Musk and his companies said they consider de Moraes’ actions “illegal” and that the court orders were issued without due process. SpaceX and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Brazilian news agency UOL reported earlier this month that some of the accounts that de Moraes Musk ordered suspended at X belonged to users who allegedly threatened federal police officers involved in an investigation into former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro has been accused of inciting riots that erupted in Brazil on January 8 and attempting a coup there.
Musk is a supporter of Bolsonaro, in part because the former Brazilian president allowed his company Starlink to operate in the country.
Since April, Musk has been ramping up his insults and calls for de Moraes’s removal. On September 5, Gwynne Shotwell, the CEO of SpaceX and a longtime employee of his, launched an online attack on the Brazilian Supreme Court.
She wrote: “@Alexander, please stop harassing Starlink and let us continue serving the people of Brazil.”
Supporters of de Moraes and the STF saw the orders against X Corp. as an assertion of Brazilian sovereignty.
WATCH: New data shows Musk's Twitter takeover is worst deal for banks since 2008 financial crisis
