Elon Musk, SEC decline to comment on whether businessman attended latest court-mandated interview as Musk alleges ‘harassment’

US regulators and representatives of businessman Elon Musk declined to say whether he had attended an interview with the US Securities and Exchange Commission after cancelling at short notice a previous appointment mandated by a federal court.

Musk was required by a court to appear at the office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Los Angeles on 10 September, but instead attended a SpaceX rocket launch in Florida.

He notified the SEC that he would not be there only three hours before the time scheduled for his appearance, the regulator said.

In a possible indication that Musk did attend the interview this time around, last Thursday morning he stopped posting on X for several hours, unusual for him, and on Friday said in a post that he had visited Los Angeles, the BBC reported.

‘Gamesmanship’

The interview was scheduled for Thursday, 3 October.

The SEC last month asked the court to sanction Musk if he missed another appointment, saying it had spent thousands of dollars to bring lawyers from San Francisco and Washington, DC to take a sworn deposition from the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive.

The regulator noted that Musk had said in a public interview he would be in Florida for the SpaceX launch, but waited until the last minute to notify the SEC.

The action “smacks of gamesmanship”, the agency said in a filing.

Musk lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel said his client and his companies have cooperated with the SEC in numerous inquiries.

Spiro noted documents that Musk had produced and other times that Musk had sat for testimony without rescheduling.

Musk has for years maintained a public feud with the SEC, which worsened in October 2023 when the regulator sued to compel him to testify, after he had failed to do so on 15 September 2023.

Twitter probe

The SEC is investigating Musk’s $44 billion (£33bn) takeover of Twitter, now renamed X.

The SEC in May 2022 began investigating Musk’s disclosure of his initial stake in Twitter, questioning whether he filed the appropriate paperwork.

The regulator is also looking into whether Musk’s statements in relation to buying the platform were accurate.

Musk first acquired a 5 percent stake in Twitter in March 2022, but disclosed this only in April 2022, when he surprised the markets by revealing he had increased his shareholding to 9.2 percent.

Musk denied at the time he was intending an acquisition or takeover of Twitter.

Multiple lawsuit were filed against Musk in 2022 from disgruntled shareholders who alleged Musk had carried out stock market manipulation.

Musk agreed to testify on 15 September 2023 at the SEC office in San Francisco, but Musk “abruptly notified the SEC” two days before his scheduled appearance that he would not attend.

Musk alleged at the time that the US regulators had leaked information to the media.