SEC Thinks Elon Musk Blowed Them: Court Documents

For now, the SEC doesn’t want to sanction Musk; he just wants X owner to know he will face repercussions if he misses his now rescheduled testimony early next month.

The commission is investigating Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter, later renamed X. The SEC previously disclosed that it is investigating whether Musk violated securities law by secretly piling up Twitter shares in 2022 and statements he made before the blockbuster deal of 44 billion dollars to be completed. Musk had tried to resist the SEC’s efforts to compel him. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said in February that Musk considered the SEC investigation “baseless and harassing.”

The SEC and Musk, who have clashed repeatedly in the past, disagree over whether Musk blew it when his lawyers told the agency he couldn’t appear at his previously scheduled testimony in California on Sept. 10 , as it was scheduled to participate in SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn launch. in Florida.

Andrews’ filing said Musk’s lawyers submitted the request to reschedule his testimony just three hours before he was scheduled to testify at the SEC’s Los Angeles office. According to the regulator, Musk should have known about the launch and made appropriate arrangements beforehand.

“Despite this advance knowledge, Musk did not notify the SEC of his intention to attend the launch until three hours before his testimony began and after the SEC had spent thousands of dollars to fly three lawyers to Los Angeles” , the file shows.

Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, responded that the SEC’s intention to seek sanctions is a “drastic action” that is inappropriate at this time. Spiro also argued that Musk’s presence at the SpaceX launch was exactly the type of emergency the court order agreed could lead to rescheduling.

“The parties have already rescheduled testimony for approximately three weeks from the original date, an insignificant amount of time in the context of an investigation that began two and a half years ago,” Spiro wrote in his part of the joint statement to the court. . “Any request for sanctions should be rejected.”

In response to Business Insider, Spiro continued to push back against the SEC’s efforts.

“The last time the SEC ran hysterical in court, they were told to ‘put on their big boy pants,'” Spiro wrote in an email to BI.

The SEC declined to comment on Spiro’s claim.

Musk’s disdain for the SEC is well documented.

In 2018, he lashed out after a settlement with the regulator led him to step down as Tesla’s chairman for three years and pay a $20 million fine. The settlement did not require Musk or Tesla to admit or deny the SEC’s allegations related to his tweet, in which he claimed he had “secured” financing to take Tesla private at $420 a share.

“I just want the Short Sellers Enrichment Commission to do an incredible job,” Musk tweeted. “And the name change is so relevant!”