A federal judge has told Elon Musk to testify on additional questions into his acquisition of what is now rebranded as X after Twitter. The Thursday deposition is part of an investigation into whether Musk delayed the announcement of his large stake in Twitter until the deal was done in 2022.
This follows Mr. Musk’s no-show at a court-ordered deposition at the US. Speaking of which, Elon Musk flew to the SEC office in Los Angeles last month. Earlier, Musk’s lawyers had informed the SEC three hours prior that he couldn’t attend due to a last-minute trip to the East Coast over a “high-risk” SpaceX launch. However, the SEC argues that this was public knowledge two days before as Musk spoke about it and therefore should have informed the SEC about such plans, for which reason the agency has moved for the imposition of sanctions against him for violating this rule.
The SEC has deployed three lawyers to tread a costly process so far just to have Musk testify-serious stuff. And in the matters related to this inquiry, for which he has refused further depositions, Musk was deposed twice. He termed this as harassment by the SEC.
SEC lawyers described Musk’s no-show as “gamesmanship” in a court filing, urging U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Corley to impose penalties if he fails to appear at the next meeting. They emphasized that strong stance was needed against every form of delay and manipulative tactic during these proceedings.
This was countered by Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro, who said that his client has cooperated extensively with the SEC while Musk and his associates have provided substantial documentation and testimony sans cancellations. As developments continue, eyes are on whether Musk will comply with the court’s directive on Thursday.