A choose has ordered Elon Musk to testify for a 3rd time as a part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into his $44 billion buy of Twitter, now known as X, in 2022.
Justice of the Peace Decide Laurel Beeler issued an order Saturday giving Musk, his crew and the SEC every week to agree on a date and site for Musk’s testimony. In a courtroom listening to final December, Beeler mentioned she would difficulty an order if the 2 sides couldn’t agree on when and the place the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would testify.
“The parties, at least initially, agreed to a date but ultimately the respondent did not appear and resists the subpoena on the grounds that the SEC’s investigation is baseless and harassing and seeks irrelevant information,” Beeler wrote within the order in federal courtroom in Northern California.
“Also, he contends that the subpoena — issued by an SEC staff member appointed by the SEC’s Director of Enforcement — exceeds the SEC’s authority because it was not issued by an officer appointed by the President, a court, or the head of a department,” as required by the U.S. Structure, she added.
Beeler mentioned, nevertheless, that the courtroom is imposing the SEC’s subpoena and that the testimony is “not unduly burdensome” for Musk. The SEC had given Musk the choice to testify in Texas, the place he lives.
The SEC has been conducting a fact-finding investigation into the interval earlier than Musk’s Twitter takeover, when the San Francisco-based social media firm was nonetheless publicly traded. The company mentioned it has not concluded any federal securities legal guidelines have been violated.
Musk has already testified within the case twice. However since then, in line with the choose’s order, the SEC has obtained “thousands of new documents” from numerous events, together with lots of of paperwork from Musk.
He closed his $44 billion settlement to purchase Twitter and take it non-public in October 2022, after a monthslong authorized battle with the social media firm’s earlier management.
After signing a deal to accumulate Twitter in April 2022, Musk tried to back out of it, main the corporate to sue him to drive him to undergo with the acquisition.
The SEC and a lawyer for Musk didn’t instantly reply to messages in search of touch upon Monday.
