The SEC seeks to sanction Elon Musk for his acquisition of Twitter

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially seeks to sanction Elon Musk. The tycoon failed to appear to testify in court for his acquisition of Twitter, now X, last September 10. Musk informed the court just three hours before his absence and excused himself by saying he had to be in Florida to oversee the launch of SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission.

According to SEC attorney Robin Andrews' argument, Musk was already supposed to be informed of the launch date, so Musk's cancellation would be unjustified, thus violating a May 31 court order compelling him to testify.

"Musk's excuse itself smacks of fraudulent maneuvering. The court should make clear that Musk's fraudulent maneuvers and stalling tactics must stop," Andrews said.

On the other side, Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, called the sanctions "drastic" and unnecessary, arguing that Musk's absence at the Palm Beach launch could have put the lives of the spacecraft's crew members at risk, so the testimony was postponed to Oct. 3.

At the same time, he spoke of an "emergency," and that "there is no reason to believe that such an emergency will occur again."

As for the SEC investigation into Musk's acquisition of Twitter, it focuses on whether the tycoon violated securities laws in early 2022, when he began accumulating shares of the popular social network. As reported by Reuters, shareholders of the company then known as Twitter criticized Musk at the time for waiting at least ten days to disclose that he was buying shares.

Musk, 51, formally acquired the company in October 2022 for $44 billion. "Twitter has tremendous potential - I'm looking forward to working with the company and the user community to unlock it," he had said a few months before the buyout.