Elon Musk's Twitter stock purchases investigated by SEC

US regulatory agency sues billionaire to force testimony on possible securities laws breaches

The SEC said it is seeking a court order to force Elon Musk to testify as part of an investigation into his purchase of Twitter, now called X. AP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating whether Elon Musk broke securities laws as he bought Twitter shares before purchasing the social media platform, is seeking to force the billionaire to testify.

The Wall Street regulator said on Thursday that Mr Musk failed to appear to testify last month as requested, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

The agency is reviewing Mr Musk’s statements and disclosures about the stock transactions, according to a filing by the agency in federal court in San Francisco.

“The SEC has already taken Mr Musk’s testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation – enough is enough,” Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr Musk, said in a statement.

The SEC began its investigation in April 2022 and has requested thousands of documents from Mr Musk and other parties, the agency said.

The billionaire has already sent hundreds of documents and testified twice in July 2022, according to the filing, which described a continuing, non-public investigation.

In a statement, the SEC said it was seeking Mr “Musk’s testimony to obtain information not already in the SEC’s possession that is relevant to its legitimate and lawful investigation”.

Mr Musk and the SEC have a long-running feud that dates back to his 2018 tweet that he planned to take his electric car maker Tesla private and had secured funding.