In connection with Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion, the federal government is conducting an investigation.
The information was revealed on Thursday as a result of a court filing that discussed the most recent development in an ongoing legal dispute between the billionaire and the social network.
Although the filing stated that he was the subject of an investigation, it did not specify what aspect of the investigation was being looked into.
In the legal document, the company stated that “this game of ‘hide the ball’ must come to an end.”
A request for comment was sent to Mr. Musk, but he did not respond right away.
Twitter, which had sued Mr. Musk in July in an effort to compel him to complete the transaction, stated that attorneys for the Tesla CEO had asserted “investigative privilege” when refusing to hand over documents that Twitter desired.
In addition, it stated that it had asked Mr. Musk’s attorneys to produce their communications with federal authorities several months ago, but they had not done so as of the time of the statement’s publication.
At the end of September, Mr. Musk’s legal representatives handed over a “privilege log” that listed the documents that were going to be withheld.
The log contained references to drafts of an email that was sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 13. The SEC is the American regulatory agency that is responsible for enforcing the law against market manipulation.
In addition to this, it made reference to a slide presentation that was given to the Federal Trade Commission, the primary objective of which is to protect consumers and advance antitrust law.
The petition to the court was submitted on the same day that the court granted a stay of litigation to permit Twitter and Mr. Musk to finalize the acquisition of the company.
Concerns regarding the agreement
The statements that Mr. Elon Musk made about the acquisition of Twitter have been called into question by the SEC.
The Securities and Exchange Commission questioned him in April regarding the timing of the disclosure of his 9% stake in Twitter and why it appeared that he intended to be a passive shareholder. After some time had passed, Mr. Musk resubmitted the disclosure to reflect the fact that he was an active investor.
In a letter that was sent to Mr. Musk in June, the SEC inquired as to whether he ought to have amended his public filing to reflect his intention to either suspend or withdraw from the deal.
According to Mr. Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro, who spoke to Reuters about the matter, Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirection.”
He stated that those at Twitter who were being investigated by the federal government were the company’s executives.
Twitter did not provide a comment regarding the statement.
The filing comes as the drawn-out saga of Mr. Musk’s proposed purchase of Twitter continues. Over the course of those months, the billionaire proposed a takeover, backed out of the deal, and was then sued by Twitter to stick to his word.
The billionaire’s camp subsequently stated that he would move forward with the transaction, and this announcement came just a few days before a trial was scheduled to take place in order to compel the purchase.
