Elon Musk opposes SEC's bid for his testimony in Twitter probe
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk asked a US federal judge on Thursday (November 2) not to compel him to testify in the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) probe into the takeover of social media site Twitter. Post his USD 44 billion takeover, Musk has renamed the platform as X.
The SEC sued Musk on October 5 to make him testify for the probe. The investigation was launched in April 2022. Musk has filed his objection in the San Francisco federal court. His lawyers have said that the SEC's subpoena exceeds the agency's investigative authority. They've also said that the subpoena is overly burdensome and seeks" irrelevant evidence".
The commission has said that it was looking into Musk's 2022 purchases of Twitter stock and also his statements and SEC filings related to Twitter and that Musk had declined to attend a September interview for the investigation.
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The SEC's subpoena exceeds the agency's investigative authority.
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In their filing, Spiro and Musk's other lawyers said in the filing: "The SEC's pursuit of Mr. Musk has crossed the line into harassment".
Musk revealed on April 4, 2022, that he had acquired a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter. The disclosure was made 11 days after the SEC's deadline for such disclosures. Initially, Musk had said that he planned to be a passive stakeholder. This means that he indicated that he did not plan to take over the company. Later in the same month, he announced that he planned to buy Twitter for USD 44 billion. He subsequently tried to get out of the deal, alleging Twitter was not disclosing the full extent of bot activity on its platform. Twitter then sued Musk to complete the deal and Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022.
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The SEC has said in a court filing that Musk provided testimony last year in July via video conference but the commission's lawyers have said that they have more questions.
The court filing has said that the SEC has spent 18 months "devoting its formidable resources to investigating Mr. Musk over an allegedly untimely filing," the court filings said. "This is just the latest chapter in a more-than-five-year saga of agency harassment against Mr Musk and related entities."
(With inputs from agencies)