Investing.com -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued Elon Musk to force him to provide testimony in the agency's probe into his purchase of Twitter last year.
The SEC alleges that Musk failed to appear to provide testimony on a Sept. 15, and said that the filing of the subpoena, with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is "seeking a court order for Musk to comply with the subpoena."
In the complaint, lawyers for the SEC wrote that the "Musk's ongoing refusal was hindering and delaying" the agency's probe into whether federal securities laws were violated in the purchase of Twitter.
The lawsuit to force Musk to testify relates to an ongoing investigation by the SEC into potential violations of federal securities laws relating to Musk’s 2022 purchases of Twitter stock, and his 2022 statements and SEC filings relating to Twitter, according to the court filing.
But the agency hasn't reached any conclusion yet whether federal securities laws were broken.
"The SEC staff is continuing its fact-finding investigation and, to date, has not concluded that any individual or entity has violated the federal securities laws," according to the court filing.
The SEC alleges that Musk had previously raised no objection to a prior subpoena -- seeking further testimony that was issued in May 2023 -- until two days before his scheduled testimony date in September 2023, when he notified the SEC that he wouldn't appear.
The SEC alleges that Musk's refusal to comply with the request to provide further testimony was based on "several spurious objections."
"The SEC has already taken Mr. Musk's testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation - enough is enough," Reuters reported, citing a statement from Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk.