It’s still too early to conclude the trial over American billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network Twitter in 2022, but the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims that he regularly ignores demands to testify, and therefore to he needs legal sanctions.
Image source: SpaceX
SEC representatives appealed to a US federal judge to do this, as CNBC notes. In the spring of 2022, Musk began buying shares of Twitter, but too late disclosed information about the concentration in his hands of more than 5% of the company’s shares, as required by US law. Regulators have been trying to compel Musk to testify under oath since the launch of this investigation, but he has found various excuses not to do so. The commission is now trying to ensure the billionaire’s appearance in court.
Musk failed to appear for questioning at least twice: in September 2023 and last week, the last time he cited the need to attend the launch of the Polaris Dawn space mission in Florida. Musk’s representatives notified the Commission that he was unable to attend the interrogation on September 10 just three hours before it began. At the same time, the department spent taxpayers’ money to send its employees to Los Angeles, where the interrogation was to take place, and expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the actions of the person involved in this case.
SEC representatives claim that he knew in advance about the impending launch of the spacecraft and could have planned to postpone his meeting with them, but instead imitated an urgent cancellation of the event. Musk’s lawyers countered that his absence from the spacecraft launch could have endangered the lives of the astronauts. Now the billionaire’s representatives have scheduled his appearance for questioning on October 3 at the SEC office. The second side of the proceedings argues that nothing can prevent Musk from missing the October meeting with SEC representatives, and therefore more serious interim measures are needed from the court.