Elon Musk Agrees to Testify in SEC’s Twitter-Buyout Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk has agreed to testify in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe of his 2022 acquisition of the social-media platform once known as Twitter.

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The billionaire will sit for a five-hour deposition after dropping his plan to appeal a court order that he comply with a government subpoena, according to a filing Thursday in San Francisco federal court. The regulator is seeking information about Musk’s purchases of Twitter stock and statements about his investments before he spent $44 billion to buy the social-media platform.

It’s the latest twist in a long-running legal saga over Musk’s buyout of Twitter for $54.20 a share. He’d tried to cancel the deal after it was announced, but changed his mind after losing some pre-trial arguments in a lawsuit that sought to force him to complete the takeover. Musk later renamed the company X.

Alex Spiro, one of Musk’s attorneys, didn’t immediately return an email for comment Thursday. Musk, who also runs electric-car maker Tesla Inc. and other companies, already has testified twice in the SEC’s investigation of his early moves in the Twitter buyout, but regulators had more questions. He agreed to one more pre-trial deposition, according to the filings.

The SEC seeks to determine if Musk, the world’s third-richest person, broke the law by missing a legal deadline for disclosing his initial 9.2% position in Twitter. Under US securities laws, anyone who buys 5% or more of a company must disclose that stake within 10 days of purchase.

Read More: Musk, Morgan Stanley ‘Hid’ Twitter Stock Purchases, Lawsuit Says

Musk has frequently accused the SEC of overzealous enforcement, ever since he agreed with the agency in 2018 to have an in-house lawyer pre-approve his social-media posts about Tesla. In April, the US Supreme Court refused to take up Musk’s challenge to the “Twitter sitter” agreement.

The case is Securities and Exchange Commission v. Musk, 23-mc-80253, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

(Updates with details on SEC’s probe starting in fifth paragraph)

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