The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially seeks to sanction Elon MuskThe tycoon did not appear to testify in court over his acquisition of Twitter, now X, on September 10. Musk informed the court just three hours before his absence and justified himself by saying that he had to be in Florida to supervise the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission.
According to SEC attorney Robin Andrews’ argument, Musk should have already been aware of the launch, making his cancellation unjustified, thus violating a May 31 court order requiring him to testify.
“Musk’s excuse itself smacks of fraudulent maneuvers“The court must make clear that Musk’s fraudulent maneuvers and delaying tactics must stop,” Andrews said.
On the other side, Alex SpiroMusk’s lawyer called the sanctions “drastic” and unnecessary, arguing that Musk’s absence from the launch in Palm Beach could have put the lives of the ship’s crew at risk, so the testimony was postponed until October 3.
In turn, he spoke of an “emergency”, so “There is no reason to believe that such an emergency will occur again.“.
As for the SEC’s investigation into Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, it centers on whether the mogul violated securities laws in early 2022 when he began accumulating shares of the popular social media network. As reported by Reuters, shareholders of the company then known as Twitter criticized Musk at the time for waiting at least ten days to reveal that he was buying shares.
Musk, 51, formally acquired the company in October 2022 for $44 billion. “Twitter has tremendous potential and I look forward to working with the company and the user community to unlock it,” he said a few months before the purchase.