SEC tries to force Musk to testify in Twitter takeover probe

FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

(Reuters) -Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is being sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is trying to compel him to testify as part of a probe into his $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter, a Thursday court filing showed.

The investigation, which escalates a long-running feud between the SEC and Musk, concerns whether Musk broke federal securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which Musk renamed X, as well as statements and SEC filings he made in relation to the deal.