By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday rejected a request by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to punish Elon Musk after he failed to appear to testify in a court-ordered investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco said sanctions over Musk’s absence on Sept. 10 was insignificant, after the richest man in the world gave testimony on October 3 and agreed to pay the SEC $ 2,923 in transportation costs.
Reliable and interesting news every day, in your inbox
See for yourself – The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and interesting stories.
“Because the current state of affairs precludes any opportunity for meaningful relief from the court, the SEC’s request is not clear,” Corley wrote.
The SEC had sought a declaration that Musk violated a May 31 court order to testify.
It said that simply paying for travel expenses would not prevent many other people from ignoring court orders, “especially for someone with Musk’s extraordinary ways.”
Musk said he listened to the order and testified on Oct. 3. He is worth $321.7 billion according to Forbes magazine.
The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment after business hours. Musk’s lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.
Musk, whose businesses include electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX and is the world’s richest man, traveled to Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Sept. 10 to watch the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission.
The SEC is investigating whether Musk violated securities laws in early 2022 by waiting at least 10 days to report that he had started stockpiling Twitter stock.
Critics and other investors said this let him buy shares cheaply before finally releasing a 9.2% Twitter stake, and soon after he wanted to buy the entire company.
In July, Musk said he didn’t understand the SEC’s reporting rules and that “all signs” pointed to him making a “mistake.”
The SEC sued Musk in 2018 over his tweets about the Tesla acquisition. He settled the case by paying a $20 million fine, agreeing to let Tesla’s lawyers investigate other positions and resigning as Tesla’s chairman.
The case is SEC v Musk, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 23-mc-80253.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Chris Reese and Cynthia Osterman)