Billionaire Elon Musk has agreed to testify in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into his $44 billion purchase of X—formerly known as Twitter—in 2022, according to court documents filed Thursday, months after federal regulators sued Tesla’s centibillionaire CEO for allegedly refusing to testify.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk in October for allegedly refusing to testify.
Musk will appear at one of the SEC’s four offices for up to five hours of questioning, court documents show, and has agreed to a date with regulators that is not included “for confidentiality purposes.”
Court documents indicate Musk is to inform regulators in writing of the location he intends to testify at no less than 14 days prior to the date of the interview.
The SEC declined to comment beyond its public filings.
Representatives for X did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 after the social media platform’s board accepted his offer to take the company private in April—a move that came after Musk bought a stake in the company. The SEC reportedly opened an investigation after Musk took three weeks to disclose that he had a 5% stake in the company—despite regulators’ 10-day disclosure rule. The delay may have saved Musk millions because he kept buying Twitter shares at relatively low prices after reaching 5%, and the share price shot up after he disclosed his stake. Nearly 18 months later, in October 2023, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk for allegedly refusing to testify. Musk’s attorneys attempted to get the suit thrown out in November, calling federal regulators’ requests “duplicative and harassing.”
We estimate Musk to be worth about $210.3 billion, making him the world’s richest person. Musk surpassed LVMH’s Bernard Arnault for the title Tuesday.
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