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Former Twitter employees who sued Elon Musk are getting a significant payout. By: MEGA
Elon Musk will be digging deep into his pockets to pay former Twitter employees $500 million, Knewz.com can reveal. The billionaire has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by some of the social media platformβs ex-staffers, who accused Musk of failing to pay their severance after he took over the company in 2022 and rebranded it as X.
Details of the lawsuit
Elon Musk will pay half a billion dollars to thousands of former Twitter employees after they sued him for unpaid severance. By: MEGA
βThe parties have reached a settlement agreement in principle and began negotiating the terms of a long-form settlement agreement,β a legal filing in the case noted. βIf the district court approves the proposed distribution, the agreement will resolve the litigation in its entirety and moot this appeal.β Two former staffers, Courtney McMillian and Ronald Cooper, had filed the original lawsuit against Musk, claiming Twitterβs 2019 severance plan promised most employees at least two months of base pay plus a week of pay for every year of service. Senior staff were owed six months of base pay. According to the lawsuit, most workers didnβt see a penny. While a federal judge dismissed the suit in July 2024, McMillian and Cooper appealed. The case was set to go to trial before the agreement was made. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, changed the popular platformβs name to X and cut around 6,000 jobs. It is not yet known how much money each worker will receive.
Another Musk lawsuit
Elon Musk was accused of not paying former Twitter employees the severance they were owed after he cut their jobs. By: MEGA
Musk was recently ordered by a judge to face another suit that claims he ran an illegal $1 million election lottery during President Donald Trumpβs 2024 White House run. The class-action lawsuit alleges that Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, induced voters into signing a petition supporting the U.S. Constitution by offering what appeared to be a lottery-style chance to win cash, in exchange for personal information.
Illegal βlotteryβ claims
Billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, rebranding the social media company as X. By: MEGA
Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty claimed Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, encouraged voters in several battleground states to sign the petition and provide personal information including their addresses and phone numbers, promising to choose one person per day to win $1 million. The lawsuit alleges voters never had a chance to collect the winnings. The Tesla and SpaceX boss did his best to have the suit dismissed, listing βred flagsβ as proof he had not run the alleged illegal lottery. Despite his pushback, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, pointed to other statements suggesting the defendants were βawardingβ the money and that the $1 million could be βwon.β βIt is plausible that plaintiff justifiably relied on those statements to believe that defendants were objectively offering her the chance to enter a random lottery, even if that is not what they subjectively intended to do,β the judge said.
Other βlotteryβ critics
Tesla boss Elon Musk and his America PAC worked to get President Donald Trump elected to the White House in 2024. By: MEGA
Muskβs βlotteryβ faced criticism in other corners, too. Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence Krasner tried to block the contest. βIβll be seeking a lot more money than that for what Elon Musk and America PAC have done,β Krasner said. Pennsylvania Judge Angelo Foglietta, however, ruled Muskβs sweepstakes was not illegal at the time.
The post Musk on the hook for $500M to former Twitter employees appeared first on Knewz.
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