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This July 23, 2023 photo illustration shows an image of Elon Musk on a mobile device with an X and the Twitter logo in the background.
Jonathan Rae Nurfoto | getty images
Tesla And SpaceX CEO Elon Musk must testify in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into its 2022 acquisition of Twitter, a federal judge ordered on Saturday.
As CNBC previously reported, the SEC is investigating whether Musk or anyone else committed securities fraud in 2022 after the billionaire started buying stock and building a stake in Twitter ahead of a leveraged buyout of the social media company. Had done it.
Musk closed the acquisition of Twitter in October 2022 in a deal worth about $44 billion and has since renamed it X.
In a February 10, 2024 order, federal magistrate judge Laurel Beeler wrote that although Musk and his legal team argued that the SEC’s subpoena in this case amounted to harassment of the billionaire, the federal financial regulator was “within its authority” and its There was a summons. It was “fixed, and relevant information is wanted for its investigation”.
Federal financial regulators and Musk now have a week to set a date and location for his testimony.
Musk and his lawyer Alex Spiro did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment “beyond public filings on this matter.”
Musk has repeatedly sought to challenge whether or not to take away power from federal regulatory agencies.
For example, he has asked the US Supreme Court to void the settlement agreement he and Tesla previously reached with the SEC. According to the agreement, Musk must get approval from a “Twitter sitter” before posting tweets about his electric vehicle business. Musk’s lawyers have argued that the agreement imposes an unconstitutional condition on Musk and is a violation of his free speech rights.
In another example, Musk-led defense contractor SpaceX sued the National Labor Relations Board after the federal agency filed a complaint against the company, alleging that the rocket maker had signed an open letter criticizing Musk. Employees were fired illegally. The letter said, among other things, that Musk’s “conduct in the public sphere is a source of continued consternation and embarrassment to us.”
SpaceX filed its lawsuit against the NLRB in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Brownsville. SpaceX lawyers argued in their lawsuit that the structure of the Federal Labor Board itself violates the US Constitution. Their lawsuit is similar to one brought against the NLRB by a former Starbucks employee, and seeks to block the NLRB’s previous complaint against SpaceX from moving forward.
read completely Order to compel compliance here,
