Elon Musk finds himself embroiled in a legal battle as former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and three other former executives take legal action against him, collectively seeking over $128 million in unpaid severance, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.
Filed in federal court in San Francisco, this lawsuit represents the latest legal hurdle for the billionaire following his acquisition of the social media giant for $44 billion in October 2022, subsequently rebranding it as X.
The additional plaintiffs named in the suit are Ned Segal, Twitter's former chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its former chief legal officer; and Sean Edgett, its former general counsel.
The lawsuit alleges that moments after Musk assumed control of Twitter, the plaintiffs were summarily dismissed, with Musk purportedly leveling false accusations of misconduct against them, leading to their ousting from the company. This action followed the former executives' previous lawsuit against Musk for allegedly reneging on his agreement to purchase Twitter.
Furthermore, Musk allegedly reneged on the severance pay promised to the executives before his takeover of Twitter, as outlined in the lawsuit.
According to the plaintiffs, each individual is entitled to one year's salary along with hundreds of thousands of stock options.
In the lawsuit, the former executives characterize Musk's behavior as part of a pattern, accusing him of withholding money owed to others and compelling them to resort to legal action.
X, formerly Twitter, faces additional legal challenges, including proposed class actions asserting owed severance payments to laid-off employees totaling at least $500 million, as well as another lawsuit by six former senior managers making similar claims.
X has refuted these allegations of wrongdoing.
Moreover, X has previously faced litigation for non-payment to its former public relations firm, landlords, vendors, and consultants.
At the time of reporting, X has not provided a response to a Reuters request for comment.
