SEC Seeks Sanctions Against Elon Musk for Missing Testimony in Twitter Acquisition Probe

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is pursuing sanctions against Elon Musk after he failed to appear for testimony regarding his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now known as X. In a court filing on Friday, the SEC stated that Musk’s absence violated a court order mandating his appearance as part of an investigation into whether he lawfully disclosed his stock purchases and whether his statements related to the deal were misleading.

Initially, a federal judge had ordered Musk to testify, and after some scheduling back-and-forth, a date was set for September 10. However, just three hours before the testimony was to begin, Musk’s lawyer informed the SEC that he needed to travel to the East Coast for the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission, making him unavailable for the testimony. The SEC had already sent attorneys to Los Angeles, incurring significant expenses for the trip.

The SEC alleges that Musk did not seek the necessary consent to change the date of his testimony, asserting that he was aware of the launch schedule in advance. The filing criticized Musk’s excuse as “gamesmanship,” emphasizing that he should have notified the SEC sooner.

Musk has previously resisted efforts to have him testify again, claiming he had already done so twice. The SEC is now requesting the court to impose “meaningful conditional relief” if Musk does not appear for the rescheduled testimony in early October, as well as seeking to recover its travel costs.

In response, Musk’s legal team argued that the SEC’s involvement is unnecessary since a new date has already been agreed upon, asserting that Musk is under a court order to appear unless an unavoidable emergency arises.

This incident marks another chapter in the ongoing tension between Musk and the SEC, which dates back to 2018 when Musk faced legal action for falsely claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private.