Washington DC:
A judge in the United States has rejected the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) request to sanction tech billionaire Elon Musk for skipping a meeting with the regulator to watch one of his rockets launch. Mr. Musk was ordered by a court to meet with SEC officials in September to provide testimony to the regulator’s investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of X (then Twitter).
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said there was no need to penalize the billionaire for his absence because he agreed to reimburse the SEC to cover the plane tickets of three of the firm’s attorneys he stood up on Sept. 10 in Los Angeles.
Musk ultimately complied with the order and met with SEC lawyers on October 3 to provide testimony.
“Because the current circumstances preclude any opportunity for meaningful relief that the court might grant, the SEC’s request is moot,” Corley wrote in the order.
The order stated that requiring only travel expenses to be reimbursed would not stop many other people from ignoring court orders, “let alone someone with Musk’s extraordinary resources.”
The SEC urged the federal judge to impose sanctions on Musk, reminding him that ignoring its order was not a “trivial matter,” according to a report by Bloomberg.
However, the report said that Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, disputed the claim and argued that the billionaire’s failure to appear for the deposition was justified because he had an urgent obligation as head of SpaceX and had to travel to Florida for the deposition. Cape Canaveral launch of a rocket for a commercial spacewalk.
Mr. Spiro argued that his client’s voluntary offer to reimburse the agency for $2,923 was sufficient. According to Forbes magazine, Musk is worth $321.7 billion.
Any statement from Mr. Musk’s lawyers or the SEC was not available at the time of filing this story.
Market regulator investigation
The SEC is investigating whether Musk — whose businesses include electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX and who is the world’s richest person — violated securities laws in early 2022 by waiting at least 10 days too long to reveal that he had begun collecting Twitter shares. .
Critics and some investors have said this allowed him to buy shares cheaply before eventually taking a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter public, and shortly afterward offering to buy the entire company.
In July, Musk said he had misunderstood the SEC’s disclosure rules and that “all indications” indicated he had made a “mistake.”
The SEC also sued Musk in 2018 over his Twitter posts about taking Tesla private. He settled that lawsuit by paying a $20 million fine, agreeing to let Tesla lawyers pre-review some messages and resigning as Tesla chairman.