- Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been found liable for fraud in connection with his acquisition of the social media platform Twitter, now known as X.
- The decision came from a jury in California.
- Musk will likely have to pay damages to affected shareholders, though the amount remains unclear.
Musk was accused in the civil trial of depressing the company’s stock price in 2022 in an attempt to renegotiate the purchase price or withdraw from the deal altogether. The jury found that Musk made false statements in two instances regarding the number of fake accounts and spam profiles on the platform.
The jury awarded damages to the shareholders. The total amount is still being calculated, but an attorney for the shareholders estimated the sum to be around $2.5 billion. “Being the richest man in the world is not a secure-out-of-jail-free card,” said plaintiff’s attorney Francis Bottini. “Someone who can move markets with his tweets is responsible for the harm that comes to investors.”
Musk’s lawyers released a joint statement calling the verdict a setback and expressed confidence in winning on appeal.
Back and Forth in the Twitter Acquisition
Elon Musk agreed to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in April 2022, but later claimed the social media service had significantly more automated bot accounts than officially stated and threatened to pull out of the deal. The acquisition ultimately closed in late October 2022, after which Musk rebranded Twitter as X.
