The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sought to censure Elon Musk on Friday, but a federal judge denied the motion after Musk did not show up for court-mandated hearing about the agency’s investigation into his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
 Following Musk’s testimony on October 3 and his agreement to reimburse the SEC for $2,923 in travel expenses, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco ruled that sanctions for Musk’s absence on September 10 were unnecessary.
“Because the present circumstances forestall any occasion for meaningful relief that the court could grant, the SEC’s request is moot,” Corley noted.
The SEC had asked for a ruling that Musk had disregarded a court order to testify on May 31.
According to the report, merely having to pay back travel expenses wouldn’t stop many others from disobeying court orders, “much less someone of Musk’s extraordinary means.”
Musk testified on October 3 and claimed to have complied with the injunction. The Forbes magazine estimates his net worth to be $321.7 billion.
A request for comment after business hours was not immediately answered by the SEC. Similar demands were not immediately answered by Musk’s attorneys.
Musk, the richest man in the world, traveled to Florida’s Cape Canaveral on September 10 to supervise the launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission. Musk’s companies include the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
The SEC is looking into whether Musk broke securities laws in early 2022 by failing to disclose that he had started buying Twitter stock at least ten days earlier.
Some investors and critics claim that this allowed him to purchase shares at a discount before he ultimately sold them.
Musk claimed in July that he misinterpreted SEC disclosure regulations and that “all indications” pointed to a “mistake.”
In 2018, Musk was also sued by the SEC for his remarks on Twitter regarding the sale of Tesla. In order to resolve the litigation, he resigned as chairman of Tesla, paid a $20 million fine, and consented to allow Tesla lawyers to review certain posts beforehand.
The case is SEC v. Musk, Northern District of California, U.S. District Court, No. 23-mc-80253.
