Elon Musk/Reuters
A group of former Twitter executives, including former CEO Prag Agarwal, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and Company X (formerly Twitter) for millions of dollars in unpaid severance pay. The lawsuit focuses on the turmoil surrounding Musk's purchase of the company in October 2022, which included mass layoffs.
As you may recall, upon taking office, Musk's first action was to fire Agarwal, CFO Ned Segal, Chief Legal Counsel Vijay Gada and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
According to the lawsuit, Musk felt "special anger" toward the group for the role they played in the months-long legal battle that forced him to complete the purchase after he tried to back out of the deal.
According to the lawsuit, Agarwal is entitled to severance pay in the amount of $57.4 million, Segal is entitled to $44.5 million, Gada to $20 million and Edget to $6.8 million, for a total of approximately $128 million.
The lawsuit cites Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, as saying that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day earlier so he could fire the executives "rightfully" just before their last stock options were due to expire.
According to Isaacson, Musk boasted that the legal maneuver saved him about $200 million.
According to the lawsuit, Musk felt "special rage" toward the group/ShutterStock
"Musk doesn't pay his bills, believes the rules don't apply to him and uses his wealth and power to trample anyone who disagrees with him," the lawsuit states.
"Because Musk decided he didn't want to pay the plaintiffs' severance, he simply fired them for no reason, then made up a fake reason and appointed employees from his various companies to endorse his decision."
The social network has not yet responded to the claims.
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