Former executives of Twitter, now X Corp., have initiated legal proceedings against Elon Musk and the company, seeking $128 million in alleged unpaid severance.
The complaint says “Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him.”
Particularly concerning are Musk's alleged threats against former Twitter executives, as reported to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that “he would hunt every single one of’ Twitter’s executives and directors ‘till the day they die”.
The ex-Twitter executives’ lawyers say, “These statements were not the mere rantings of a self-centred billionaire surrounded by enablers unwilling to confront him with the legal consequences of his own choices.
“Musk bragged to Isaacson specifically how he planned to cheat Twitter’s executives out of their severance benefits in order to save himself $200 million.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California under Agrawal et al v. Musk et al, involves ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, head of legal Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett.
Referencing more than 25 related lawsuits, it details accusations against Musk and X Corp. for not compensating employees, landlords and various service providers.
The plaintiffs argue that following Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, there was a deliberate refusal to fulfil contractual severance obligations as part of a broader pattern of evading financial commitments.
Not the only unpaid severance lawsuit
This legal action comes in the wake of failed settlement negotiations in Delaware's Woodfield v. Twitter Inc, concerning another $500 million in severance claims by former Twitter managers and engineers.
Both lawsuits claim that Twitter promised employees severance pay if they were laid off, including when they were hired and following Musk’s acquisition of the company in 2022. However, Musk went on to lay off more than half of the company’s employees, and those payments were allegedly never made.