The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to formally sanction Elon Musk, who failed to appear for court testimony on September 10 last year regarding the acquisition of Twitter (now TwitterX). Musk notified the court just three hours before his absence, explaining that he had to be in Florida to oversee the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission.
SEC attorney Robin Andrews argues that Musk’s cancellation was unjustified because he was already aware of the release date and violated a May 31 court order compelling his testimony.
“Mr. Musk’s excuse itself reeks of fraudulent maneuvering. The court should make it clear that Mr. Musk’s fraudulent maneuvering and stalling tactics must end,” Andrews said.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, called the sanctions “extreme” and unnecessary, arguing that Musk’s absence from the launch in Palm Beach could have put the lives of the spacecraft’s crew at risk, and testimony was postponed to October 3rd.
At the same time, he spoke of an “emergency situation” and said there was “no reason to think that such an emergency would occur again.”
The SEC’s investigation into Musk’s Twitter purchase is focused on whether he violated securities laws when he began buying up shares of the popular social network in early 2022. Shareholders of the company, then known as Twitter, criticized Musk for waiting at least 10 days to disclose the stock purchase, according to a Reuters report.
Musk, 51, officially acquired the company for $44 billion in October 2022. A few months before the acquisition, he said, “I see great potential for Twitter, and I look forward to working with the company and its user community to unlock that potential.”