Elon Musk Found Liable in Twitter Investor Case

A jury in the United States has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors during his 2022 acquisition of Twitter. However, the jury cleared him of allegations that he intentionally planned a fraud scheme.

The case was heard in a federal court in San Francisco and was based on a class-action lawsuit filed by Twitter shareholders. The lawsuit focused on Musk’s statements in May 2022, including tweets and a podcast appearance, made during the period when he was negotiating to buy the company for $44 billion.

After nearly three weeks of trial and four days of deliberation, the nine-member jury concluded that Musk’s two tweets misled investors. One of the key tweets stated that the Twitter deal was “temporarily on hold” while he reviewed the number of fake or spam accounts on the platform.

However, the jury ruled that comments Musk made during a podcast were opinions and did not amount to misleading statements. They also found that Musk did not deliberately scheme to defraud investors.

As part of the verdict, the jury awarded damages to affected shareholders ranging from $3 to $8 per share per day. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, the total compensation could reach around $2.1 billion.

During the trial, much of the discussion focused on Musk’s claims about the number of fake accounts on Twitter. Musk argued that the platform had significantly more bots than the 5% figure disclosed by the company. He said this was one of the reasons he initially tried to back out of the deal.

Twitter later took legal action to force Musk to complete the acquisition. Just before the case went to trial in Delaware, Musk agreed to proceed with the original $44 billion deal.

The court also heard testimony from former Twitter executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal, along with Musk himself.

Plaintiffs argued that Musk’s statements were carefully planned to push down Twitter’s stock price so he could renegotiate the deal or exit it. Musk, however, maintained that he acted based on concerns about inaccurate data and insisted that investors who held their shares ultimately benefited.

Musk’s legal team did not comment after the verdict. The decision sends a strong message about accountability in financial markets, even for high-profile business leaders.