Elon Musk Is Under Federal Investigation
Elon Musk is now under federal investigation for his purchase of Twitter.
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Elon Musk is under federal investigation related to his $44 billion acquisition deal for Twitter. The news comes from a court filing about the latest ongoing legal disputes between the billionaire and the micro-blogging site. While court documents said he was being investigated, they did not say what the focus was, or which federal authorities were investigating.
Through legal counsel, Elon Musk has exchanged substantive correspondence with federal authorities concerning their investigations. Now, Twitter wants those documents as they have a significant bearing on key issues in the current litigation process. In the court filing, the social media company noted that it first requested the documents in July.
After a lot of legal persuasions, Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter for the previously agreed-upon amount of $44 billion. Although he agreed to that number in April, pending financing, the 51-year-old has complained about the proportion of accounts comprised by bots. He also placed the deal on hold, then said he was “still committed” to the purchase two hours later, Deadline reports.
Additionally, he claimed Twitter did not provide him with necessary information on spam, faced a class action suit from shareholders, and was sued by the social media giant after he tried to terminate the deal in July. The last lawsuit was due to start in Delaware Chancery Court later this month on an expedited timeline. The judge on the case agreed to stay the trial, giving Elon Musk until 5 pm on October 28th to close the deal.
If Elon Musk does not complete the deal by the agreed-upon time, the judge will set another trial date. Meanwhile, the Securities & Exchange Commission asked questions about a tweet the billionaire sent in which he said his acquisition of Twitter cannot move forward due to fake accounts on the platform. It suggested he would abandon the deal, which he later did. There were also SEC issues over the timing of when the Tesla boss first reported his large accumulation of Twitter shares.
Twitter’s latest filing asks for the court’s help in obtaining the production of Elon Musk’s legal communications with the government concerning the company and the transaction. “This game of hide the ball must end,” it said via Deadline. However, Alex Spiro said the social media giant’s filing is a tactic to distract from the platform’s own legal problems surrounding security vulnerabilities.
Away from the courtroom, Elon Musk has started selling a perfume called Burnt Hair (which may or may not be a real thing) so he can acquire the social media platform. Earlier this week, the Tesla CEO shared a photo of the product on social media. He also noted that sales have now exceeded $1 million for the scent and changed his Twitter profile to say, “Perfume Salesman.”
Dubbed “The Essence of Repugnant Desire,” Burnt Hair is selling for $100 a bottle and will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2023, according to Boring Company’s website. Although it seems like a gimmick from Elon Musk, Deadline says the checkout process takes would-be buyers all the way to a payment form that accepts major credit cards and crypto.
