SEC Sues Elon To Compel Him To Testify; Musk Responds It's Time For Punitive Action Against Regulators Who "Abuse Power For Political Gain"
The SEC, (which stands for either Suck Elon's C**k or the Securities and Exchange Commission depending on who you ask)...
SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon’s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2020
... has sued Elon Musk (again), this time to compel - or at least try - the billionaire CEO of Tesla to testify regarding his purchase of Twitter last year, CNBC reported Thursday.
The SEC alleged in a complaint filed in the Northern District of California that Musk didn't appear for testimony that was required via a subpoena that was served to Musk in May 2023.
An official litigation release from the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed on Thursday, said:
If a person or entity refuses to comply with a subpoena issued by SEC enforcement staff pursuant to a formal order of investigation, the Commission may file a subpoena enforcement action in federal district court seeking an order compelling compliance. According to the SEC staff’s filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the testimony subpoena to Musk relates to an ongoing investigation by the SEC regarding, among other things, potential violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with (a) Musk’s 2022 purchases of Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) stock, and (b) Musk’s 2022 statements and SEC filings relating to Twitter.
The SEC also claimed that Musk skipped out on testimony just days before he was supposed to show up:
"According to the filing, Musk failed to appear for testimony as required by the investigative subpoena served by the SEC, despite: (1) agreeing to appear for testimony on a mutually agreed upon date in September 2023; (2) having been served with a subpoena in May 2023 requiring his appearance for testimony in the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office on that mutually agreed upon date; and (3) raising no objection to the subpoena from May 2023 until two days before his scheduled testimony date in September 2023, when Musk notified the SEC that he would not appear."
The SEC complaint says: “Musk’s ongoing refusal to comply with the SEC’s administrative subpoena is hindering and delaying the SEC staff’s investigation to determine whether violations of the federal securities laws have occurred. Accordingly, the SEC now asks the Court to compel Musk to appear for investigative testimony.”
The SEC said it tried to meet Musk in Fort Worth, Texas, “the closest SEC office to Musk’s current personal residence”, and that multiple dates were offered for both October and November of this year. Lawyers for the SEC said Musk refused to comply with the subpoena due to “several spurious objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate testimony location.”
“These good faith efforts were met with Musk’s blanket refusal to appear for testimony,” the SEC claims in its suit. It also claimed its “staff is continuing its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws.”
In response, Musk was - as usual - laconic and to the point, commenting on the same twitter X that he bought, that what is actually needed is "a commission to take punitive action against those individuals who have abused their regulatory power for personal and political gain."
A comprehensive overhaul of these agencies is sorely needed, along with a commission to take punitive action against those individuals who have abused their regulatory power for personal and political gain.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2023
Can’t wait for this to happen.
