Billionaire Elon Musk is facing a lawsuit from four former Twitter executives who claim he owes them $128 million in severance pay due to wrongful termination. The employees were allegedly fired right after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform in October 2022.
The ex-executives seeking compensation include former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former Head of Legal, Policy and Trust Vijaya Gadde, and former General Counsel Sean Edgett.
The legal action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where Twitter’s former headquarters was located. The lawsuit accuses Musk of unjustly firing the executives to avoid paying their benefits, fabricating reasons for their dismissal without evidence.
According to the document, Musk attempted to back out of the Twitter acquisition after agreeing to it, leading to a legal battle with the company. The lawsuit also alleges that under Musk’s leadership, Twitter has failed to fulfill financial obligations and disregarded rules and regulations.
In response to the allegations, Musk made light of the situation on Twitter with emoji reactions to users’ comments. This lawsuit is not the first involving Twitter severance claims against Musk, as a previous class action lawsuit was filed in July 2023 for $500 million by former employees seeking unpaid severance.
Musk has previously defended his decision to lay off employees after acquiring Twitter, stating that he believed in the potential for increased productivity through restructuring.
