Elon Musk is accused of trying to “distort” the SEC's Twitter investigation

As Elon Musk repeatedly refuses the SEC's offer to interview him as part of an ongoing investigation into his handling of the Twitter acquisition, a new filing accuses the billionaire of trying to “misrepresent the scope of the SEC's investigation.”

In the SEC's response to a motion filed by Elon Musk, the agency wrote that it “continues to distort the true scope of this investigation — its only hope to demonstrate that the SEC is not looking for relevant evidence” and that it “continues to misrepresents the relevance of his additional testimony.”

In October 2022, Musk closed the acquisition of Twitter (which was later renamed X) in a $44 billion deal. Before announcing his bid for the company, he quietly bought shares of Twitter, amassing a nine percent stake in the company. As The New York Times It is noted that SEC rules require investors who buy more than five percent of a company's stock to disclose their holdings within 10 days of the purchase — Musk reportedly missed that deadline, according to the agency.

Last year, the SEC sued Musk in federal court in California after he failed to appear for a Sept. 15 deposition as required by a subpoena served by the agency. After Musk missed the date, the SEC said it tried to reschedule, but those “good faith efforts were met with Musk's general refusal to appear for a deposition.” The SEC also said Musk accused the agency of “using subpoena power to 'harass'” him, a claim the federal financial regulator called “unsupported.”

On February 10, a federal judge ordered Musk to testify, writing that although X's owner and his legal team argued that the SEC subpoena amounted to harassment, the agency was “within its authority” and the subpoena was “certain and seeks relevant information” about her research.

Since the SEC began its investigation into whether Musk followed the law in filing the required documents Twitter stock purchases and if he committed securities fraud, his testimony is not yet done. The SEC alleged that Musk was using “gameplay” to stop the investigation, noting that while his legal team claimed the investigation is an “unlimited inquiry into an alleged late SEC filing,” the agency “has repeatedly informed Musk that it is false.”