SEC seeks to force Elon Musk to testify in probe of Twitter stock purchases

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The US securities regulator is taking Elon Musk to court over his refusal to testify in an ongoing investigation into his purchases of Twitter stock and his statements surrounding the $44bn takeover of the social media platform.

In a filing in California federal court on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that it was conducting an “ongoing non-public investigation” into whether Musk had “violated various provisions of the federal securities laws” in connection with “his purchases of Twitter stock” and “his 2022 statements and SEC filings relating to Twitter”.

The SEC said that Musk failed to testify on September 15, as required by a subpoena it had issued. It asked the court to compel him to appear, “in the face of Musk’s blatant refusal to comply with the SEC’s subpoena”.

Before making his bid for the company at $54.20 a share in October last year, Musk accumulated a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter, which has since been renamed X, in a series of share purchases that began as early as January. That was above the 5 per cent threshold that triggers disclosure requirements.

In April, the SEC sent a letter to Musk asking him why he did not appear to have made the appropriate filing by a late March deadline and why he had initially indicated that he was going to be a passive investor.

According to the SEC filing on Thursday, Musk initially agreed to testify in the investigation, but then notified SEC staff two days before his planned appearance that he would not, raising what the regulator described as “several spurious objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate testimony location”.

He also refused to meet in Texas, as well as alternate dates in October and November, the filing said.

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, said in a statement: “The SEC has already taken Mr Musk’s testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation — enough is enough.”

Musk has clashed repeatedly with the SEC in recent years. He was sued for tweeting he had “funding secured” to take Tesla, the electric-car maker he leads, private, and later settled with the regulator. He has butted heads with the regulator since over the terms of that agreement.