Four Former Twitter Executives Sue Elon Musk For Over $128 Million In Unpaid Severance

Four former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk over unpaid severance. They are collectively asking for more than $128 million from Musk.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco. It marked the latest in a string of legal woes the billionaire has faced after he acquired Twitter, now X, for $44 billion in October 2022.

The other plaintiffs include Ned Segal, Twitter’s former chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, former chief legal officer; and Sean Edgett, former general counsel.

Minutes after Musk took control of the platform, the former executives allege they were fired and accused of misconduct following another lawsuit against Musk for attempting to rescind his offer to purchase the company.

Musk then denied the executives the severance they had been promised for years before he acquired Twitter, according to Monday’s filing. The plaintiffs are each asking for one 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,” the former executives said in the lawsuit.

X is currently facing a pair of proposed class action suits claiming it owes rank-and-file workers who were laid off after Musk’s acquisition at least $500 million in severance. The company was also previously sued for failing to pay its former public relations firm, landlords, vendors and consultants.

X has lost 71% of its value since Musk acquired it, in what is considered to be one of the worst business deals in U.S. history.