Billionaire Elon Musk is being sued by 4 former Twitter executives who allege that the multi-CEO owes them $128 million in severance on account of wrongful termination. The previous workers say they had been fired instantly after Musk accomplished his $44 billion takeover of the social media firm in October 2022.
Amongst these searching for financial compensation are former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former Head of Authorized, Coverage and Belief at Twitter, Vijaya Gadde, and former Twitter Normal Counsel Sean Edgett.
Associated: Twitter Is Being Sued for $500 Million By Laid-Off Workers Claiming Unpaid Severances
The lawsuit was filed on Monday within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, the place Twitter’s former HQ was.
The doc alleges that Musk fired the executives “with out motive” as a result of he did not wish to pay their advantages and made up a “pretend trigger” to get away with it, citing that Musk wrote the workers had dedicated “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” with out proof supporting the claims.
“After Defendant Elon Musk definitively agreed to purchase Twitter, Inc. for $44 billion, the inventory market declined, and Musk tried to again out of the deal, regardless of having no authorized or contractual justification to take action. Twitter sued Musk to implement the deal, and over months of intensive litigation, every of Musk’s baseless excuses was stripped away,” the doc states. “Beneath Musk’s management, Twitter has change into a scofflaw, stiffing workers, landlords, distributors, and others. Musk would not pay his payments, believes the principles do not apply to him, and makes use of his wealth and energy to run roughshod over anybody who disagrees with him.”
In typical Musk vogue, he cheekily responded to the allegations on X.
First, the billionaire posted a crying laughing emoji in response to a consumer who wrote: “Parag Agrawal is suing Elon Musk claiming that he did the truth is get so much carried out that week.”
?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2024
In a second response, Musk wrote “If the emoji suits” beneath a publish of Agrawal and a clown emoji.
If the emoji suits … ?♂️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2024
This isn’t the primary Twitter severance lawsuit.
In July 2023, the billionaire was hit with a $500 million class motion lawsuit by former Twitter workers who claimed they weren’t paid the severance they had been promised, which was reportedly “two months of their base pay plus one week of pay for every full yr of service” upon being laid off.
Associated: Elon Musk Will get Into Twitter Combat With Ex-Worker
“There have been lots of people that did not appear to have a variety of worth,” Musk mentioned final Could on the Wall Road Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London, relating to the mass layoffs and cuts instantly following his takeover of the corporate. “I feel there’s the chance for important cuts at different corporations with out affecting their productiveness, the truth is rising their productiveness.”
