The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Elon Musk on Thursday in an attempt to force the billionaire to testify about his Twitter purchase last year.
Lawyers representing the SEC alleged in a complaint filed in the Northern District of California that Musk failed to appear for a Sept. 15 deposition as requested in a subpoena that the lawyers said was issued to the Tesla CEO in May 2023 was delivered.
Broadly speaking, the SEC said the investigation is related to whether someone committed securities fraud when Musk bought shares in the company last year. Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, in October in a deal worth about $44 billion.
“Musk’s continued refusal to comply with the SEC’s administrative subpoena is hindering and delaying the SEC staff’s investigation to determine whether violations of the federal securities laws have occurred,” the attorneys wrote in the complaint. “Accordingly, the SEC is now asking the court to compel Musk to appear for investigative testimony.”
The SEC said it tried to find a convenient time and place to meet with Musk, including offering to meet him at the agency’s office in Fort Worth, Texas, “the SEC office that is Musk’s current personal residence on.” nearest is” in the Austin area. Several dates have been proposed for October and November this year.
“These good faith efforts were met with Musk’s blanket refusal to appear for testimony,” the lawsuit says.
Alex Spiro, Elon Musk’s attorney, said in a statement about the complaint: “The SEC has already taken Mr. Musk’s testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation – enough is enough.”
SEC lawyers claim Musk refused to comply with the subpoena because of “several false objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate location for testimony.” Musk had previously raised no objections to this location.
Additionally, SEC lawyers allege that Musk believed the Commission was using the subpoena as a method to “harass” him, thereby justifying his decision not to comply with the subpoena. Musk also reportedly used the recent publication of his biography, written by journalist Walter Isaacson, as further reason not to appear to testify, claiming the book “may contain new information that may be relevant to this matter.”
“The publication of Musk’s biography is not a legitimate basis for Musk to avoid complying with a lawfully issued investigative subpoena,” the attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. “In any event, Musk’s initial refusal to comply with the subpoena has now given his attorney sufficient time to review the biography for relevant information, and so this objection is now moot and, moreover, legally insufficient to begin with.”
The SEC said in a statement that its “employees are continuing their investigative investigation and have not yet concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.”
According to legal documents, a hearing on the request is scheduled for November 9th.
Watch CNBC’s full interview with “Elon Musk” author Walter Isaacson.