Amid legal allegations, Elon Musk has criticized the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ), claiming they are abusing their regulatory authority.
Musk is facing a lawsuit by the SEC, which alleges that he failed to testify in a probe related to his $44 billion purchase of Twitter (now X) in October 2022. The SEC is investigating whether this purchase violated securities laws. According to a filing by the regulator on Oct. 5 in a California District Court, the SEC is seeking to force Musk to comply with an earlier subpoena.
In a post on X, Musk suggested that it should be the SEC and DOJ who should be under investigation. “A comprehensive overhaul of these agencies is sorely needed, along with a commission to take punitive action against those individuals who have abused their regulatory power for personal and political gain,” he stated.
The SEC claims that Musk was subpoenaed in May 2023 and required to testify at the regulator’s San Francisco office on Sept. 15. However, two days before the scheduled testimony, Musk informed the SEC that he would not appear and made several objections, which the SEC claims lacked legal merit.
Musk has been vocal about his disapproval of the SEC in the past, famously stating in a December 2018 interview with 60 Minutes, “I do not respect the SEC. I do not respect them.”
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