(CNN) — Twitter Inc said Thursday in a court statement that federal authorities are investigating Tesla CEO Elon Musk in connection with his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
It’s not clear who might be conducting the investigation, and Twitter has not identified Musk’s behavior for investigation, but the company’s lawsuit accused Musk’s legal team of failing to issue approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and submitting a presentation to the Federal Trade Commission.
In response, Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, said the case was intended to distract attention from Twitter’s own legal problems, which arose following Twitter’s former chief of security, Peter Zatko (Mudge), accused the company of ignoring the existence of vulnerabilities long ago.
“Twitter executives are under investigation in an effort to uncover the perpetrator,” Spiro said in a statement to CNN.
The Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the terms of the 2011 agreement with Twitter to address those vulnerabilities that Zatko claims the company breached, did not disclose a public investigation, but the commission’s chair, Lena Khan, told Congress in public testimony that if it was proven that the managers Twitter executives were responsible for legal violations, and they can be held accountable.
