The Securities and Trade Fee needs a phrase with Elon Musk.
The company has requested a federal decide in San Francisco to compel the billionaire social media honcho to testify in its investigation of Musk’s 2022 buy of Twitter (now X). The submitting in U.S. District Courtroom notes that he “failed to seem for testimony on September 15, 2023, as required by the investigative subpoena served by the SEC.”
Based on right this moment’s submitting (learn it right here): “As a substitute, two days earlier than his scheduled testimony, Musk abruptly notified the SEC employees that he wouldn’t seem. Musk tried to justify his refusal to adjust to the subpoena by elevating, for the primary time, a number of spurious objections, together with an objection to San Francisco as an acceptable testimony location.”
The testimony subpoena pertains to the SEC’s investigation launched in April 2022 into potential violations of varied provisions of federal securities legal guidelines in reference to Musk’s 2022 purchases of Twitter inventory, and his 2022 statements and SEC filings referring to the social media large. Based on the submitting, the SEC “seeks Musk’s testimony to acquire info not already within the SEC’s possession that’s related to its authentic and lawful investigation.”
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Musk appeared for half-day periods of testimony to the SEC by videoconference twice throughout July 2022.
Since Musk’s final half-day of testimony on July 27, 2022,” the SEC submitting reads, “the Fee has obtained 1000’s of latest paperwork from numerous events as a part of its investigation, together with tons of of paperwork produced by Musk. Practically half of the paperwork produced to the Fee by Musk on this investigation had been produced after Musk’s prior investigative testimony over a yr in the past, together with paperwork Musk authored. The SEC has subsequently not but had the chance to query Musk concerning, amongst different issues, the data contained in these paperwork.”
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A listening to on the submitting is about for November 9.
Right here is the complete textual content of the SEC submitting:
The Securities and Trade Fee (“SEC”) introduced that it has filed an software in search of an order directing Elon Musk (“Musk”) to adjust to an investigative subpoena calling for his look for testimony, with which Musk didn’t comply.
If an individual or entity refuses to adjust to a subpoena issued by SEC enforcement employees pursuant to a proper order of investigation, the Fee could file a subpoena enforcement motion in federal district court docket in search of an order compelling compliance.
Based on the SEC employees’s submitting within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California, the testimony subpoena to Musk pertains to an ongoing investigation by the SEC concerning, amongst different issues, potential violations of varied provisions of the federal securities legal guidelines in reference to (a) Musk’s 2022 purchases of Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) inventory, and (b) Musk’s 2022 statements and SEC filings referring to Twitter. Based on the submitting, the SEC seeks Musk’s testimony to acquire info not already within the SEC’s possession that’s related to its authentic and lawful investigation.
Based on the submitting, Musk failed to seem for testimony as required by the investigative subpoena served by the SEC, regardless of: (1) agreeing to seem for testimony on a mutually agreed upon date in September 2023; (2) having been served with a subpoena in Could 2023 requiring his look for testimony within the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Workplace on that mutually agreed upon date; and (3) elevating no objection to the subpoena from Could 2023 till two days earlier than his scheduled testimony date in September 2023, when Musk notified the SEC that he wouldn’t seem. Based on the submitting, Musk tried to justify his refusal to adjust to the subpoena by elevating, for the primary time, a number of spurious objections.
The SEC employees’s software seeks an order from the court docket directing Musk to adjust to the subpoena. The applying is topic to the court docket’s ruling. The SEC employees is constant its fact-finding investigation and, to this point, has not concluded that any particular person or entity has violated the federal securities legal guidelines.
Tom Tapp contributed to this report.
