The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has announced its intention to seek monetary and legal penalties in order to compel billionaire Elon Musk to appear for a scheduled testimony. Musk is accused of failing to provide testimony to the financial regulator regarding the $44 billion acquisition of the Twitter platform in 2022.
The SEC plans to file sanctions against Musk, demanding that he “Show Cause [for] why he should not be held in civil contempt” for allegedly violating the terms of the agreement outlined in the May 2024 order, which set the date for the testimony as September 19.
In addition, the SEC is seeking financial compensation to cover the travel costs that were wasted due to Musk’s cancellation of the meetings, as well as any other relief that the court deems appropriate.
According to court documents, the meeting was originally scheduled for September 19, but Musk’s representatives reportedly attempted to reschedule the date multiple times.
The SEC alleges that Musk violated the terms of the agreement by failing to obtain the “written consent of the SEC or order of the Court” to modify the meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk’s legal team has criticized the SEC’s actions, describing them as “drastic.” They argue that the Securities and Exchange Commission had already agreed to reschedule the meeting for October 3 in Los Angeles, California, and therefore the court’s intervention is unnecessary. In a response to the proposed sanctions, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro wrote:
The attorney’s letter explained that Musk missed the previous meetings due to an emergency and assured the court that he would attend the October meeting as scheduled.
Musk is currently facing regulatory scrutiny on an international level. In August, the Irish Data Protection Commission, an EU watchdog, filed a lawsuit against the X social media platform, accusing it of AI data violations and demanding that it cease collecting the data of European users.
On September 2, the Brazilian Supreme Court upheld a ban on X that was originally ordered by Judge Alexandre De Moraes in a unanimous vote. This ruling dashed hopes that Musk would be able to overturn the ban in the courts.
In more recent news, Dawn Butler, a member of the UK Parliament and the Labour Party, suggested the possibility of summoning Musk to testify before parliament regarding X’s content moderation policies.
According to Yat Siu, the CEO of X Hall of Flame, Elon Musk is highly influential on the X platform and has amassed over 100,000 followers.