Federal authorities are investigating Elon Musk in connection with the deal to buy Twitter worth 46 billion euros, the social networking platform said in a court filing on Thursday.
It is not clear which agencies may be conducting the investigation, and Twitter did not identify which specific actions by Musk may be under investigation by US officials.
The Twitter document simply said that authorities are looking into Musk’s “conduct” in connection with the deal.
The company’s filing accused Musk’s legal team of failing to produce draft communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a filing with the Federal Trade Commission as part of ongoing litigation between the two sides over whether Musk could to leave the agreement.
Musk first tried to back out of the deal in July, claiming that Twitter had violated the joint acquisition agreement by misrepresenting the numbers of “spam” and fake accounts on its platform.
Twitter sued Musk to complete the purchase, accusing the billionaire of using the “robot” accounts as a pretext to walk away from a deal he described as buyer’s remorse after the market slump.
Last week, Musk proposed to continue the agreement to buy the company at the price agreed upon at the beginning of 55.52 euros per share. The judge overseeing the dispute later in the week ordered a stay of court proceedings until October 28 following a request made by Musk.
In a response to the lawsuit filed Thursday by Twitter, Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, said it was designed to distract attention from Twitter’s own legal problems, which arose after the company’s former chief security officer, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, accused Twitter of long-ignored security vulnerabilities.