Guwahati: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is being investigated by the US federal authorities in connection with his USD 44 billion Twitter buyout deal, said media reports citing a court filing by the microblogging site.
However, 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.”
“Twitter’s executives are under federal investigation,” Spiro said in a statement. “This misdirection was sent by Twitter to try and uncover which of their assorted misconduct they are under investigation for.”
Elon Musk, who had previously expressed interest in purchasing Twitter, abruptly ended the agreement in July. The Tesla CEO said that by exaggerating the quantity of spam and false bot accounts on its network, Twitter had broken the terms of their mutual purchase agreement.
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.