NEW YORK- Tesla Inc and its Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of improperly targeting them with an "endless" and "unrelenting" investigation amid Musk's criticism of the government.

In a letter filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, a lawyer for Musk and Tesla also accused the SEC of failing to distribute funds from settlements reached in 2018 over Musk's tweet that he had secured funding to take his electric vehicle company private.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Toby Chopra) ((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))