Former CEO Parag Agrawal and three other former top executives of Twitter, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, and Sean Edgett, have collectively filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for more than $128 million in unpaid severance.
The legal action, filed in federal court in San Francisco, is the latest in a string of legal battles Musk has faced since acquiring the social media giant for $44 billion in October 2022 and rebranding it as X.
The executives allege that moments after Musk assumed control of Twitter, they were summarily dismissed and falsely accused of misconduct. They claim Musk forced them out of the company after they sued him for allegedly reneging on his agreement to purchase Twitter.
According to the lawsuit, Musk also withheld severance payments that had been promised to the executives years before the acquisition. Each plaintiff asserts they are entitled to a year’s salary and hundreds of thousands of stock options.
In a scathing critique outlined in the 39-page lawsuit, the former executives accuse Musk of employing a systematic tactic to withhold money owed to others and compel legal action against him. The lawsuit underscores Musk’s alleged pattern of behavior in financial dealings.
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is confronting a barrage of legal challenges, including class-action suits seeking over $500 million in unpaid severance for laid-off employees and a separate lawsuit by six former senior managers making similar claims.
X has denied any wrongdoing in these matters. Moreover, the company has a history of legal disputes over unpaid dues to various parties, including public relations firms, landlords, vendors, and consultants.
Despite multiple requests for comment, X has remained silent on the matter, leaving the accusations against Musk unanswered in the public arena.
