Musk being probed by federal authorities over $44 bn deal, claims Twitter

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities over his $44 billion takeover deal of Twitter, the micro-blogging platform revealed in a court filing.

The court filing, submitted at the Delaware Chancery Court in the US late on Thursday, however did not reveal which federal agencies are probing Musk in connection with the deal, reports the CNN.

Twitter's filing said US federal authorities are looking into Musk's "conduct" linked to the deal.

Twitter also accused Musk's legal team of "failing to produce draft communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a slide presentation to the Federal Trade Commission as part of the two sides' ongoing litigation over whether Musk can walk away from the deal", the report mentioned.

In response to Twitter's filing, Musk's attorney Alex Spiro was quoted as saying that it is a move to "distract from Twitter's own legal problems".

"Twitter's executives are under federal investigation. This misdirection was sent by Twitter to try and uncover which of their assorted misconduct they are under investigation for," Spiro told CNN.

Earlier this week, a court filing by Elon Musk's legal team revealed that Twitter's former head of security, whistleblower Peiter Zatko, burnt 10 notebooks and deleted 100 computer files at the behest of the company's managers.

The filing alleged that Twitter asked Zatko to destroy evidence before he was asked to leave the company after he received more than $7 million as part of the settlement.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick at the Delaware Chancery Court has granted a stay on the Twitter-Musk trial, which is now on hold till October 28, as both the parties deliberate on how to close the $44 billion takeover deal.

Twitter has received a letter from Musk to go ahead with their original deal of $54.20 per share (or $44 billion).