Federal investigators are looking into Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, about his actions surrounding his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (1). According to a new filing by Twitter, which aims to find crucial papers Musk is allegedly hiding from the company, this is the case.
Why is he being investigated?
As of Writing, it is still unclear what the inquiry is specifically focused on or which government agencies are carrying it out. Twitter asserted that Musk allegedly used "investigative privilege" in his refusal to provide the papers the business requested in September. A "privilege log" of documents that Musk's lawyers specifically gave included a draft email sent to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (2) in May and a slide show presentation for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (3). The FTC declined to comment, and the SEC did not reply to Reuters' request for comment.
What is Twitter's stand on this?
In court, Twitter stated that "this game of 'hide the ball' must cease." The motion urged Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick to force Musk's lawyers to deliver the requested information. The same judge halted the lawsuit between Musk and Twitter on October 6th when the latter opted to proceed with the purchase once more. It was filed at that time. An attorney representing Musk named Alex Spiro asserted that Twitter's filing misled the public. He said that the subject of the FBI probe was Twitter's executives. When questioned about Spiro's reaction, Twitter remained silent. Musk has until October 28 to complete the Twitter transaction; if not, McCormick will establish a trial date for the following month.
Musk's Twitter U-turn
Musk rapidly bought the entire firm in May after announcing a 9% ownership in Twitter in April and turning down a position on its board of directors. Despite Twitter's acceptance, Musk eventually sought to back out of the agreement, apparently because Twitter didn't give him enough details on the spam bots using its network. In response, Musk was sued by Twitter for failing to carry out the agreement, which he has since agreed to do.
Musk has expressed interest in making Twitter a refuge for free expression and more decentralized, in addition to eliminating spam bots. To discuss how this may be feasible, the billionaire contacted several key figures in the cryptocurrency business in March, including Jack Dorsey and Sam Bankman-Fried.
