The SEC is investigating Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter and attempting to force him to sit for questioning

• The SEC is investigating Elon Musk's initial investment in Twitter and his eventual takeover.
• The government agency says Musk has failed to sit for an interview regarding the case.

Elon Musk's investment in Twitter and his eventual $44 billion acquisition of the platform is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, with whom Musk now refuses to sit for an interview.

The SEC on Thursday asked a California federal court to force Musk, who acquired Twitter, or X, just under a year ago, to comply with a May subpoena asking him to sit for testimony. The filing revealed what the agency said has been "an ongoing nonpublic investigation by the SEC regarding whether, among other things, Musk violated various provisions of the federal securities laws" with his initial secret collection of Twitter stock in early 2022 and his later purchase of the company, along with statements he made about the deal.

Although it was noted last year in a filing in a separate court action that Musk was under federal investigation, it did not disclose by which body or what the investigation concerned.

"The SEC seeks Musk's testimony to obtain information not already in the SEC's possession that is relevant to its lawful investigation," the agency said. "The SEC has followed all appropriate administrative steps required in seeking Musk's testimony. In the face of Musk's blatant refusal to comply with the SEC's subpoena, the SEC now asks the Court to intervene and compel Musk's compliance."

Although Musk previously gave the SEC a half-day of testimony in July of 2022 related to its investigation, the agency said it is requesting he submit to further questioning because of the huge amount of additional information it's received this year. The SEC has "thousands of new documents from various parties as part of its investigation, including hundreds of new documents produced by Musk."

"The SEC has not yet had an opportunity to question Musk about those documents and other substantial information it has obtained in its investigation since July 27, 2022," the agency said in its filing.

After months of back and forth with Musk's lawyer, who the SEC claims never objected to Musk sitting for another interview, the Tesla billionaire agreed to be questioned on Sept. 15 in San Francisco. He did not appear for testimony.

Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, told Insider: "The SEC has already taken Mr. Musk's testimony multiple times in this misguided investigation — enough is enough."

'Spurious objections'

"Instead, two days before his scheduled testimony, Musk abruptly notified the SEC staff that he would not appear," the SEC said. "Musk attempted to justify his refusal to comply with the subpoena by raising, for the first time, several spurious objections, including an objection to San Francisco as an appropriate testimony location."

Other of Musk's objections included that the SEC was attempting to "harass" him and that his biography, Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, was being published close to the date of his scheduled testimony and his lawyers needed "time to review" material in the book. Musk and his personal confidants made up most of the books sources.

Although the SEC attempted to choose another date and location to interview Musk, he shifted to a "blanket refusal to appear for testimony," according to the agency.

It is now asking the court to force Musk to comply and sit for an interview.

A representative of Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.