In a letter dated Friday, Steven Buchholz
of the Securities and Exchange Commission's San Francisco Office wrote that the
judge handling a securities case against Musk encouraged both sides to confer
before raising issues with the court.
He also denied that the agency had issued
subpoenas in the Musk Twitter case and that the SEC is taking too long to
distribute a $40 million penalty from Musk and Tesla that is supposed to go to
Tesla shareholders.
Early Thursday, lawyers for Musk sent a
letter to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan accusing the SEC of
harassing him with investigations and subpoenas over his Twitter posts.
In 2018, Musk and Tesla each agreed to pay
$20 million in civil fines over Musk's tweets about having the money to take
the company private at $420 per share.
The funding was far from secured and the
company remains public. The settlement specified governance changes, including
Musk's ouster as board chairman, as well as approval of Musk's tweets.
The letter from attorney Alex Spiro accuses
the SEC of trying to “muzzle” Musk, largely because he's an outspoken
government critic.
“The SEC's outsized efforts seem calculated
to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights rather than to enforce
generally applicable laws in an even-handed fashion,” the letter stated.
Spiro also questioned why the SEC hasn't
distributed the $40 million in fines to Tesla shareholders more than three
years after the settlement.
Buccholz wrote that during a 2019 contempt
hearing, the judge encouraged the parties to make good faith efforts to meet
before raising any compliance issues with the court.
“The Commission's enforcement staff have,
accordingly, sought to meet and confer with counsel for Tesla and Mr. Musk to
address any concerns regarding Tesla and Mr. Musk's compliance with the court's
amended judgments,” Buchholz wrote.
The SEC has followed court orders in
distributing the settlement money and that process is nearing completion, his
letter said.