According to media sources citing a court petition by the microblogging platform Twitter, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is under investigation by US federal authorities in relation to his USD 44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
However, CNN noted that the Thursday Twitter court filing omitted specifics about the ongoing investigation into the business magnate’s acts that are being looked at by the authorities.
Without going into specifics, Twitter stated in the court document that they are investigating Musk’s “behaviour” in relation to the acquisition. The Musk legal staff appears to be under the most scrutiny.
Twitter said that Musk’s legal team had neglected to deliver draught letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission and a slide show for the Federal Trade Commission. According to CNN, this is a part of the continuing dispute between the two parties about whether Musk can cancel the agreement.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, responded to the Twitter filing by saying that it simply serves to distract from its own legal difficulties, which were revealed through whistleblower disclosure. Last month, Peiter Zatko, a former Twitter security head, accused the social media platform of wrongdoings, including “Twitter’s tracking and measuring of user interaction.”
Spiro told CNN that “Federal investigators are looking at Twitter’s executives.” Twitter sent this deception in an effort to find out which of their many acts of wrongdoing are the subject of an investigation.
Elon Musk, who had previously expressed interest in purchasing Twitter, abruptly ended the agreement in July. In doing so, the Tesla CEO claimed that Twitter had broken the terms of their mutual purchase agreement by exaggerating the quantity of spam and phoney bot accounts that were present on its network.
The market had a strong fall following Musk’s announcement of the contract termination. Later, Twitter sued Musk, alleging that he had used bots as a cover to back out of a transaction.
Last week, Musk reiterated that he will proceed with the purchase of Twitter at the initially agreed-upon price of USD 54.20 per share. However, the judge presiding over the issue has ordered a pause on the Twitter acquisition legal procedures until October 28.