US regulator to seek sanctions against Elon Musk over Twitter probe
Musk fails to appear for court-ordered testimony in Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X.
Musk's legal team has described the proposed sanctions as "drastic" and unwarranted./ Photo: Reuters
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said it intends to seek sanctions against Elon Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony for the regulator's probe into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter (now called X).
In a court filing on Friday, the SEC said the sanctions motion would seek an order to show cause for why Musk should not be held in civil contempt for waiting until just three hours before the scheduled Sept. 10 testimony to advise he would not appear.
Musk, whose businesses include electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, went to Florida's Cape Canaveral that day to oversee the launch of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission.
Lawyers for Musk called sanctions "drastic" and unnecessary, saying his testimony has already been rescheduled for Oct. 3.
Whether Musk broke laws
A spokesman for the SEC declined to comment.
The SEC is investigating whether Musk broke federal securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which he later renamed X.
It sued Musk last October after he refused to attend an interview for the probe. Musk has said the SEC was trying to "harass" him through subpoenas.
Since acquiring the platform in 2022, Musk has reduced the workforce by 75% and revised policies on hate speech and disinformation.
As of June 2024, X remains one of the leading social media platforms and ranks as the fifth-most-visited website globally.
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