Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct in a $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc., the social media company, Twitter, said in a court filing released Thursday.
The filing did not disclose the exact focus of the investigations and which federal officials are conducting them.
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On October 3, Delaware Chancery Judge Kathleen St. Jay McCormick shelved the case and gave Musk and Twitter until October 28 to finalize their settlement. Musk’s lawyers are requesting that McCormick punish Twitter lawyers for destroying evidence related to a potential case.
Read also: Elon Musk: Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, others try to destroy evidence
Twitter, which sued Musk in July to force it to close the deal, said the Tesla Inc CEO’s lawyers had claimed “investigative privilege” when he refused to hand over the documents sought. Had done it.
In late September, Musk’s lawyers provided a “privilege log” containing documents to be withheld, Twitter said. Log referenced a draft of a May 13 email to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The court filing, which asked the Delaware judge to order documents for Musk’s lawyers to be made available, was done on October 6—the same day that the judge halted the litigation between the two parties after Musk overturned, saying that He will go ahead with the deal.
“This game of ‘hide the ball’ must end,” the company said in the court filing.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk, told Reuters that Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirection”. Twitter declined to comment to Reuters questions about Spiro’s response and its understanding of any investigation into Musk.
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the FTC declined to comment.
The SEC has questioned Musk’s comments about the Twitter acquisition. In April, the SEC asked Musk whether the disclosure of his 9% Twitter stake was late and why it indicated that he intended to become a passive shareholder. Musk later denied the disclosure, indicating that he was an active investor.
In June, the SEC asked Musk in a letter whether he should have amended his public filing to reflect his intention to suspend or drop the deal.
The Information, a tech news site, reported in April that the FTC was investigating whether Musk failed to comply with an antitrust reporting requirement because he deposited his stake in Twitter.
Twitter said in June that the acquisition deal with Musk had cleared an antitrust waiting period for review by the FTC and the US Justice Department.
(with inputs from Reuters)
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