The action, filed in federal court in San Francisco, is the latest in a slew of legal obstacles for the billionaire after acquiring the social network business for $44 billion in October 2022 and later renaming it X.
The other plaintiffs include Ned Segal, Twitter’s former CFO; Vijaya Gadde, its former CLO; and Sean Edgett, its former general counsel.
The former executives claim they were fired minutes after Musk assumed control of Twitter, and that Musk falsely accused them of wrongdoing and forced them out after they sued the billionaire for attempting to back out of his deal to buy the firm.
According to the lawsuit, Musk subsequently withheld the executives’ severance money, which they had been promised for years before he acquired Twitter. The plaintiffs claim they are each promised a year’s salary and hundreds of thousands of stock options.
“This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him.”
excerpts from 39-page lawsuit by former executives
X is already facing two proposed class actions alleging that it owes at least $500 million in severance pay to rank-and-file employees who were laid off following Musk’s takeover, as well as a third lawsuit filed by six former top executives making similar allegations. X has denied wrongdoing.
The corporation has also been sued before for failing to pay its former public relations firm, landlords, contractors, and consultants.
X did not respond to our request for comment.
