Lean – conscious
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has announced its intention to try to impose sanctions on Elon Musk after he failed to appear to testify in the investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
In a filing with federal court in San Francisco, the SEC said: “The sanctions proposal would request an order to show cause that Musk should not be held in civil contempt for waiting until three hours before the testimony scheduled for September 10 to report that he would. without attending.”
Musk, who is ranked as the world’s richest person, went to Cape Canaveral, Florida, that day to oversee the launch of his company’s Polaris Dawn SpaceX mission.
But the SEC said Musk, as SpaceX’s chief technical officer, was “already aware” of the planned launch because the company had discussed it two days earlier, and said Musk’s actions violated a May 31 court order compelling him to testify give
“Musk’s own apology is a big fraud,” said SEC attorney Robin Andrews.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, described the penalties as “dragonian” and unnecessary, saying Musk’s absence from the launch could endanger the lives of the astronauts, and his testimony was adjourned until October 3.
Spiro added that Musk’s failure to testify on Sept. 10 was the result of an “emergency” he did not cause, and “there is no reason to believe that such an emergency will be repeated.”
An SEC spokesman declined to comment, although the regulator said in a court filing that there was nothing to dissuade Musk from showing up on Oct. 3.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Musk violated securities laws in early 2022 when he began piling up Twitter shares.
Musk was criticized, including Twitter shareholders, for waiting at least 10 days longer than necessary to disclose his purchase of the company’s shares.
Investors must disclose when they reach 5% ownership of public companies, and eventually Musk revealed a 9.2% stake in Twitter, and quickly offered to buy the entire company.
Last July, Musk said he understood the SEC’s disclosure requirements and that there was “every indication” that the delay was a “mistake” as the SEC sought to “harass” him with the subpoenas.
Musk has long run afoul of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including after it filed a lawsuit against it in 2018 over his posts on Twitter (currently platform X) regarding Tesla’s privatization.
Musk settled that lawsuit by paying a $20 million fine, agreed to have Tesla’s lawyers review some previous publications, and resigned from his role as chairman of Tesla’s board of directors.
Source: Agencies
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2024-09-21 08:15:32