A federal judge warned Elon Musk that he will be forced to testify in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation if he does not voluntarily agree to answer questions from the agency about his 2022 purchase of the platform then known as Twitter.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler reportedly dismissed Musk’s argument that the SEC lacks the authority to issue an administrative subpoena and told the two sides to set a time for the billionaire’s deposition, according to Reuters.
If Musk and the SEC fail to agree on a time, Beeler said she would issue an order setting the deposition for February in San Francisco.
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“You’ve got one more four-hour deposition, one more day of depositions to survive, and it’s over,” the judge said to Musk’s attorneys Thursday, according to Reuters. “It seems unlikely there’s going to be any more hassle.”
Musk previously sat on two other occasions for questions from the SEC about his purchase of Twitter, which he has since renamed X.
The billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla was set to sit for a third deposition in September but notified the SEC just days before that he would not appear, the agency said in its initial filing in October.
The SEC began investigating Musk in April 2022, when he first offered to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Just days earlier, a filing with the agency revealed that Musk had bought a 9.2 percent stake in the company, becoming its largest shareholder.
Musk initially accepted an offer to join Twitter’s board before backing out and offering to buy the company. Six months and several lawsuits later, the billionaire officially acquired the social media company for $44 billion.