In a court filing released on Thursday, the social media company Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) said that Elon Musk is being looked into by the federal government for how he handled his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).
Even though the filing said he was being investigated, it didn’t say what the investigations are about or which federal agencies are doing them.
Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to close the deal. Lawyers for the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc. CEO said they couldn’t give Twitter the documents it had asked for because of “investigative privilege.”
Twitter said that at the end of September, Musk’s lawyers gave a “privilege log” that listed documents that could not be released. Drafts of an email to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 13 and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission were mentioned in the log (FTC).
In the court filing, the company said, “This game of “hide the ball” must end.”
The court filing, which was made on Oct. 6, asked Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick (NYSE:MKC) to order Musk’s lawyers to hand over the documents. On the same day, McCormick stopped the case between the two parties after Musk changed his mind and said he would go through with the deal.
Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, told Reuters that Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirect” and said, “The feds are looking into Twitter’s executives, not the company.”
Twitter didn’t say anything about what Spiro said. It also wouldn’t say anything when Reuters asked what it knew about any investigation into Musk.
The SEC didn’t respond right away to a request for comment, and the FTC said it wouldn’t say anything.
The SEC has asked Musk some questions about what he said about buying Twitter. For example, they want to know if the 9% stake he had built up before announcing his bid was revealed too late and why it seemed to show that he planned to be a passive shareholder. Musk later changed the filing to show that he was a very active investor.
In a letter sent in June, the SEC asked Musk if he should have changed his public filing to show that he wanted to stop or drop the deal.
The Information, a tech news site, said in April that the FTC was looking into whether Musk didn’t follow the antitrust law that says investors must report whether they plan to be passive or active shareholders.
Twitter said in June, though, that the deal with Musk to take over the company had passed an antitrust waiting period and was now being looked at by the FTC and the U.S. Justice Department.
McCormick has given Musk until October 28 to finish buying the company. If the deal doesn’t get done by then, a trial date will be set for November.
