US SEC seeks to compel Elon Musk to testify in investigation of whether Twitter acquisition violated securities law
- The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking a court order after Musk failed to appear for testimony in September
- The filing rejects Musk’s reasons for not showing up, including needing time to review Walter Isaacson’s new biography about the billionaire
The SEC said in a filing in a San Francisco federal court that Musk failed to appear for testimony on September 15 despite an investigative subpoena served by the SEC and having raised no objections at the time it was served.
But “two days before his scheduled testimony, Musk abruptly notified the SEC staff that he would not appear”, said the agency’s filing. “Musk attempted to justify his refusal to comply with the subpoena by raising, for the first time, several spurious objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate testimony location.”
X is based in San Francisco.
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said in an emailed statement Thursday that the “SEC has already taken Mr. Musk’s testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation – enough is enough.”
The SEC said it has been conducting a fact-finding investigation involving the period before Musk’s takeover last year when Twitter was still a publicly traded company. The agency said it has not concluded that anyone has violated federal securities laws.
