Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, according to a Thursday court filing in which the agency sought to compel Musk to testify.

The investigation — which escalates a long-running feud between the SEC and Musk — concerns whether Musk broke federal securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which Musk renamed X, as well as statements and SEC filings he made in relation to the deal.

The SEC said it subpoenaed Musk in May 2023 requiring him to provide testimony at the SEC’s San Francisco office, and that Musk had agreed to appear on Sept. 15. But then two days beforehand Musk raised “several spurious objections” and told the SEC he would not appear, the SEC said. Musk also refused to SEC proposals to conduct the deposition in Texas in October or November.

Among his objections was that the SEC was trying to “harass” him and that his counsel needed time to review potentially relevant material contained in a biography of Musk published last month, the SEC said.

  • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1382·
    9 months ago

    Couldn’t be happening to a more deserving guy. Between the racism lawsuits, his ex-girlfriend lawsuit, investor lawsuits, former executive suing him, and now the SEC? I hope this is the year we take all of Elon’s money.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      741·
      9 months ago

      Just shows how weak our government is against the rich. If the SEC order any of us to appear we would appear or go to jail. These fucker can even ignore subpoena.

      • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        34·
        9 months ago

        They couldn’t even enforce their settlement with him over the fraud he was investigated for at Tesla. Which doesn’t even count all the fraud they turned a blind eye to.

          • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
            201·
            9 months ago

            I’m extremely aware of what the SEC is. They explicitly chose not to go back to court when Musk refused to abide by the terms of the agreement that was further clarified by the court after he refused to abide by the settlement terms initially.

            Having to type a whole extra paragraph just to make pedants happy makes the internet suck.

    • TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world
      321·
      9 months ago

      All of this could be why he’s slowly morphing into Kathy Bates, he’s looking for a disguise we might trust.

    • WalrusDragonOnABike@kbin.social
      91·
      9 months ago

      Even if we could just take away 99.9999%, that would be nice. He’d still be several times wealither than the average american his age.

      • Dr. Dabbles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        9 months ago

        That’s acceptable to me, look what he pisses his money away on. The other .0001% would be gone quickly.

    • fiat_lux@kbin.social
      6·
      9 months ago

      As much as I would love for that to happen, money just gets shuffled around between companies and people like cards at a casino. It’s exceptionally easy to launder it when you’re that wealthy.

      And then even if you do somehow manage to remove all his assets, he still maintains his existing social networks and connections, which may be enough to get him back to a similar position.

      Prison is necessary if he has committed financial crimes. Anything less is merely finger-wagging.

        • fiat_lux@kbin.social
          3·
          9 months ago

          It’s the wrong day for me to answer that question too honestly, but I understand your point. Keep on dreaming and living the dream, friend.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
    16·
    9 months ago

    So is this criminal or just civil? Because he’s practically immune to civil lawsuits in the USA.

    • stankmut@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      9 months ago

      The SEC is suing to get a court order to compel his testimony in an investigation. Assuming the court grants that order, which is likely, he will be forced to cooperate with the SEC or face the prospect of sitting in jail for contempt of court.

  • Mago@lemmy.world
    14·
    9 months ago

    Lets be real - someone this rich will not be punished regardless of what he does.

  • PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee
    9·
    9 months ago

    This one’s especially funny to me, Musk already HATES the SEC for probing his previous stock trading shenanigans

  • SleepingTower@lemmy.world
    8·
    9 months ago

    Why does every post of this clown have a picture of him cosplaying as Dr Evil? If newsrooms can attach unflattering photos of Zuckerburg, they should be able to use unflattering pictures of Musk.