Four previous Twitter executives, including the platform’s ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk on Monday, accusing him of withholding the severance pay worth $128 million after he fired them all post his takeover of Twitter in 2022. The suit was filed in the federal court of San Francisco as a result of Musk’s series of actions after buying Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and changing its name to ‘X.’
Upon acquiring the company, the first thing that Musk did was fire Twitter’s chief executive, Parag Agarwal. He also fired the company’s chief financial officer, Ned Sagal, and two lawyers, Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, from their roles as the head of legal and policy and general counsel, respectively. All four ex-executives had clauses in their contracts specifying that they were entitled to severance if Twitter became a private company. Therefore, when Musk purchased it and turned it into a privately owned company, these former executives were entitled to payments, as claimed in the lawsuit.
Further, this severance included annual salary along with the awards of unvested stocks to these executives if their jobs faced a negative impact due to the change in control. All of them seek different amounts in the lawsuit, which ranges from $57 million for Parag Agarwal to $7 million for Edgett. The $128 suit also includes attorney’s charges and interest.
This is not the first time that billionaire Elon Musk has been legally accused of misconduct. There are many previous lawsuits from ex twitter employees seeking money from Musk. After he acquired the company, they have not even paid rent to many of its offices, leading to numerous lawsuits and eviction notices.
As per a Forbes report, the lawsuit reads as follows:
This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him. Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it.
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