Former senior executives 🌼of Twitter are suing Elon Musk and X Corp., saying they are entitled to a total of more than USD 128 million in unpaid severanc💧e payments.
Twitter's former CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned🔥 Segal, Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett claim in the lawsuit filed Monday that they were fired without a reason on the day in 2022 that Musk com𒈔pleted his acquisition of Twitter, which he later rebranded X.
Because he didn't want to pay their severance, the executives say Musk "made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to up💧hold his decision." The lawsuit says not paying severance and bills is part of a pattern for Musk, who's been sued by “droves" of former rank-and-file Twitter employees who didn't receive severance after Muꦐsk terminated them by the thousands.
"Under Musk's control, Twitter has become a scofflaw, stiffing employees, landlords, vendors, and others," says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California. "Musk doesn't pay his bills, belieꦕves the rules don't apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him."
Representatives for Musk and San Francisco-based X did not immediateꦏly respond to messages for comment Monday.
The former executives claim their severance plans entitled them to one year's salary plus unvested stock awar🐼ds valued at the acquisition price of Twitter. Musk bought the company for USD 44 billion, or USD 54.20 per share, taking contro😼l in October 2022.
They say they were all fired without cause. Under the severance plans, "cause" wa🤡s narrowly d🌠efined, such as being convicted of a felony, "gross negligence" or "willful misconduct."
According to the lawsuit, the only cause Musk gave for the firings 🀅was "gross negligence and willful misconduct," in part because Twit﷽ter paid fees to outside attorneys for their work closing the acquisition. The executives say they were required to pay the fees to comply with their fiduciary duties to the company.
"If Musk felt that the attorneys' fees payments, or any other payments, were improper, his remedy was to seek to terminate the deal — not to withhold executives' severance payments after the deal closed," the lawsuit says.
X faces a "staggering" number of lawsuits over unpaid bills, the lawsuit says. "Consistent with the cavalier attitude he has demonstrated towards his financial obligations, Musk's attitude in response to these mounting lawsuits has reportedly♈ been to let ﷺthem sue."
