Elon Musk has been ordered by a federal judge to testify once again as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues its investigation of Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. The court gave Musk and the SEC one week to come up with a date and location for both sides to meet. If neither side can agree to a date and time for the interview, the judge said that she would hear from both parties and come up with a date and time for them.
The SEC sued Musk last October in an attempt to force the multi-billionaire to testify about the purchase of Twitter which he made in 2022. Musk, who famously renamed Twitter “X,” had failed to show up during a scheduled meeting with the SEC in September which was related to the agency’s probe of the transaction. Twitter was a publicly-traded company before Musk took it private which means that any deep dive into the transaction by the government would start with an SEC investigation. In filling out the required paperwork for his purchase of Twitter, the question is whether Musk followed the letter of the law or included misleading statements with his submissions.
Musk accused the SEC of harassment as he attempted to prevent the regulatory agency from interviewing him again about the Twitter acquisition. He complained that the SEC had already spoken with him twice. Judge Beeler said that the SEC, seeking relevant information from Musk, did have the authority to subpoena him.
The SEC and Musk have battled before. In 2018, Musk posted a tweet that said, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The tweet led Tesla’s shares to soar 11% that day, but no deal was ever announced. The SEC, Musk, and Tesla agreed to a settlement. Musk and Tesla paid $20 million in fines, and Musk had to leave his post as Tesla chairman although he retained the CEO job. The settlement also required that any tweet Musk sent out with material information about Tesla had to be approved by the SEC in advance.