Four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, have sued Elon Musk, alleging that they’re owed over $128 million in severance payments.
When Musk bought Twitter (now X), one of his very first moves as the company’s owner was to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and lawyers Sean Edgett and Vijaya Gadde.
According to the lawsuit, Musk has a “special ire” toward these former executives, who worked hard to hold Musk to his $44 billion commitment when he tried to back out.
The lawsuit quotes Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, which quotes Musk as saying he would “hunt every single one” of Twitter’s C-suite “till the day they die.”
Musk has been a vocal critic of Gadde in particular, who was involved in several high-profile content moderation decisions on Twitter. After putting in his bid to buy Twitter, he posted memes mocking the executive, which sparked a wave of racist online attacks against her.
According to the lawsuit, Musk claimed that these executives committed “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” in their termination letters, but never was able to show evidence of his allegations.
“This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him,” the lawsuit reads. “Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it.”
It would ne recalled that just weeks ago, 11 Twitter Africa workers went on the back of labour laws in Ghana and got Elon Musk to pay them their severance awards more than one year after laying them off unceremoniously.
The aggrieved workers hired Ghanaian based company, Agency 77 to negotiate their severance and they succeeded in getting Elon Musk to pay.
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