It has been a crazy week for Elon Musk, and he literally brought all of it on himself. He praised Kanye West on Twitter just before Twitter suspended Kanye’s account for hate speech. Musk then began interfering in international politics, saying that China should invade Taiwan, and that the way the Russia-Ukraine war ends is by Ukraine giving up territory to Russia. Musk also made a call to Vladimir Putin and was doing some kind of back-door diplomacy, which is in violation of the Logan Act. To top all of that off, Musk has now told the Pentagon that they need to pay tens of millions of dollars to support SpaceX/Starlink’s work in Ukraine, that SpaceX will no longer pick up the tab (if they ever were).
All of that was happening as Musk and Twitter are going back and forth with the Court of Chancery to deal with this complete disaster of a contract. Musk doesn’t have the money to buy Twitter, and his billionaire backers have exited stage left. Now it looks like Musk is actually being investigated by federal authorities over this whole Twitter mess:
Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his conduct in his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), the social media company said in a court filing released on Thursday. While the filing said he was under investigations, it did not say what the exact focus of the probes was and which federal authorities are conducting them.
Twitter, which sued Musk in July to force him to close the deal, said attorneys for the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO had claimed “investigative privilege” when refusing to hand over documents it had sought. In late September, Musk’s attorneys had provided a “privilege log” identifying documents to be withheld, Twitter said. The log referenced drafts of a May 13 email to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
“This game of ‘hide the ball’ must end,” the company said in the court filing. The court filing, which asked Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick to order Musk’s attorneys to provide the documents, was made on Oct. 6 – the same day that McCormick paused litigation between the two sides after Musk reversed course and said he would proceed with the deal.
Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, told Reuters that Twitter’s court filing was a “misdirection” and asserted: “It is Twitter’s executives that are under federal investigation.”
Twitter declined to comment on Spiro’s statement. It also declined comment when asked by Reuters about its understanding of any investigation into Musk. The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the FTC declined to comment.
I truly don’t understand the ins and outs of this but I hope that Musk is being investigated by all of the federal agencies. He commits crimes all of the time – insider trading, violating the Logan Act, fraud, Ponzi schemes. What’s insane is that he hasn’t been buried in federal investigations and civil litigation for years.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Elon Musk, Mae Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688277513, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Elon Musk, Mae Musk, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688277550, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Elon Musk, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688277560, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Elon Musk, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688277574, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Elon Musk, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
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- Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688277583, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Elon Musk, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
It couldn’t happen to a better person…
+1
Eh. I don’t think he is worse than other CEOs. He just has mental health issues that make it difficult for him to keep his thoughts inside when stressed.
I think Twitter is just as crooked as Elon.
I think Twitter misrepresented the number of true subscribers.
I think the Fed is investigating everyone involved.
There is a reason why Dorsey stepped down and Twitter was ready to accept a buyout soon after.
Let’s stop using mental health issues as an excuse for being horrible, amoral sociopathic assh*les.
He doesn’t have mental health issues.
What he has is extreme white privilege & so much money he no longer has to even try to hide it.
There isn’t a mental health issue that makes you racist, or an asshole, ever.
Sorry but this is a comment ignorant of the facts and reads like it came from Elon directly.
Twitter is a publicly owned company currently and has been since 2013, so it has to adhere to rules and oversight and standards. Elon wants to change all of that by making it private so it *can* be all that you accuse it of being.
@WiththeAmerican
2008- Financial Crisis – Regulated banks in business for 50+ years.
How is this comment substantiating your claim that “twitter is just as crooked as Elon”?
You clearly don’t understand how public companies work, it you keep parroting Musk lines. Oh, by the way, Musk tried to charge US taxpayers for Starlink after making himself look like the hero.
I heard that Musk would have to sell his company to come up with the cash to buy Twitter. I also heard that if he becomes the owner of Twitter, many people and businesses will stop using Twitter and it will go bankrupt just like Myspace did years ago. Musk must have gone crazy to jeopardize his successful company to buy Twitter and for what? Just so he can own the libs? Just so he can reinstate Donald Trump’s twitter account? He is really not a nice person and I won’t be a hypocrite: He can go to hell. Lastly, Tesla would be the last company I would buy an electric car from.
When it was first announced he was interested, I saw people panicking, wondering if they should return to Tumblr or what other site they should use?
So yes, I think Twitter will lose a lot of followers, including people who care about equality, certain fandoms with lots of participants including Kpop groups like BTS or Twice, Beyoncé, Nicki etc, educational or charity accounts and many more.
BTS has essentially abandoned Twitter already. The set up individual accounts on Instagram and their company HYBE has created their own social media community called Weverse. It’s a one stop shop for just about everything. A lot of the big KPop acts are already there. Even Western acts are joining.
Yes, and they do a lot on their own app Weverse as well.
Still quite a few BTS fans on Twitter, so they might leave too.
Not sure if you’re a BTS fan, but if you are, enjoy their huge free concert in Busan tomorrow, which is broadcast for free. People from all over the world are going, but as so often when they do something positive, it’s crickets in a lot of media that does like to bring them up when other Korean people that have nothing to do with them do something to get clicks.
Musk won’t need to sell any of his companies to buy Twitter. He would have to sell a lot of shares though. Probably enough shares that he would no longer have control at Tesla, SpaceX etc.
And that would be a fantastic outcome for those companies!
Due to Musk’s insider trading, stock manipulation, union-stomping, mood swings, crazy public statements and overall mismanagement, it would be best for all of his companies if he were removed from the board and reduced to a minor shareholder. They can put his name on a commemorative plaque on a trash can in front of the corporate headquarters.
I do not care for Twitter. The company profited off of Trump and Russian propaganda. I would gladly see Musk run that company into the ground.
“They can put his name on a commemorative plaque on a trash can in front of the corporate headquarters.”
oh, I laughed hard at this, thank you.
Dr Mrs The Monarch, Musk sold over $8 billion dollars worth of Tesla stock right after the announcement was made that he was buying twitter. I always believed that this was Musk getting cash because it seems he’s rich but not with ready cash. Shortly afterward Tesla stock crashed. I think I read that even though he said he would go ahead and buy Twitter at the agreed upon stock price (about $54 a share), that the sale was still contingent upon financing. Well, who is going to loan him the money on stock valued at $44 or less (I haven’t bothered to pay attention after the stock started tanking.)
There was a penalty that if he didn’t buy Twitter he would have to pay $1 billion dollars. If he is denied financing, I suspect there would not be a penalty, but I don’t know that for sure. This man’s only focus is making money and getting in the media. Maybe he thinks it keeps him relevant. He is relevant to the MAGA’s, but that’s pretty much it.
I doubt Twitter’s counsel would state something in a court filing that they know is untrue. That said, they’re acting squirrelly. I would love to be a fly on Judge McCormick’s chambers’ wall. I know DoJ is a little busy right now, but HEY, GUYS, OVER HERE!
I wonder if counsel for Twitter told them they need to get everything out into the open to protect their shareholders? They definitely want to close the deal and it has to be at or close to what Musk offered in April.
They have to close the deal at exactly what was agreed when Elon signed the agreement after waiving due diligence. That’s Elon’s problem. He leveraged his Tesla shares on his end, but their value has dropped significantly, plus equity investors are backing out. He’ll probably have to due a share buy-back for Tesla, but even then, I don’t think he can afford the deal without the other backers.
My guess is without other investors, the deal falls apart, with Elon on the hook for $1 billion, plus damages. And that’s before whatever fines he might owe the feds.
Musk parroting Russia’s talking points on Ukraine is nothing less that encouraging genocide. It’s horrific that he is owned/influenced by a hostile foreign power to that extent. There’s reasonable suspicion that he is shutting down Ukrainian military comms as directed by Russia. I hope he is being investigated both for his acquisition of Twitter as well as his level of control over Starlink operations.
Part of me wonders if this is part of his strategy to avoid buying Twitter to make the US government prohibit the purchase so that he doesn’t have to pay the $1 billion breakup fee. Or maybe just that he needs Russian lithium and aluminum and Chinese manufacturing.
He’s just Trump in the Penguin’s clothing.
*chef’s kiss*
This is the best take here. He amped up his pro Russia crap publicly, he admitted and then took back a direct call with Putin about Ukraine, all of which is to indicate he is acting as a hostile power to the US, so to own the currently public space where global journalists and activists share info is a threat to the west.
I think he wants to be stopped from the purchase so he can claim victimhood while not being outed as just another trump getting rich and famous off of using the system and lying to investors and banks.
Well, at least he wasn’t born in the U.S. Otherwise, you know he’d be jockeying to be the Republican nominee for president.
This is literally our only saving grace in the world, because otherwise we’d have the Musk/Ye ticket.
That posed expression on Musk’s face reminds me of something. I’m pretty sure he’s part amphibian. A frog? A lizard? A weasel?
Lol @ Giddy!!!
Why is his face morphing into Trump’s?? That smug, do-not-trust-me-I-am-a-psychopath look…
He’s manipulating Ukraine’s Starlinks. This dude needs serious investigating and sent away. Another dangerous tool.
He’s so clearly a publicity-seeking twit, much like TFG, our former “dear leader.”