In a recent development, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced its intention to pursue sanctions against Elon Musk for not appearing for testimony in a probe related to his acquisition of Twitter, now known as X. A federal judge had previously ordered Musk to testify as part of the SEC's investigation into his $44 billion takeover. The SEC is investigating whether Musk complied with the law in disclosing his Twitter stock purchases and if his statements regarding the deal were deceptive.

According to a court filing on Friday, the SEC claimed that Musk's lawyer informed them just three hours before the scheduled testimony that Musk, who is also the head of SpaceX, had to urgently travel to the East Coast for the Polaris Dawn mission launch and thus could not attend or reschedule. Despite efforts to find a new date, the testimony has been slated for early October. The SEC alleges that Musk violated a court order by not seeking written consent to modify the testimony date.

The SEC contends that Musk's actions were deliberate, suggesting his knowledge of SpaceX's launch schedule and accusing him of withholding this information until the last minute. Musk's legal team, however, argues that court intervention is unnecessary as a new testimony date has already been agreed upon. This latest conflict adds to the ongoing tension between Musk and the SEC, dating back to 2018 when Musk was sued for misleading tweets about taking Tesla private.