Former Twitter executives sue company to recover more than US$1 million
Former senior executives of Twitter have sued the corporate in an try to get better greater than US$1 million in authorized bills incurred by responding to shareholder lawsuits, federal investigations and a congressional listening to, in keeping with a grievance filed Monday in Delaware Chancery Court.
The lawsuit by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former chief authorized officer Vijaya Gadde and former chief monetary officer Ned Segal alleges that Twitter has did not reimburse them for legal professionals’ charges in accordance with prior agreements with the corporate. Elon Musk fired the executives instantly after finishing his acquisition of the corporate.
Twitter, which lower a lot of its public relations workforce final 12 months, didn’t instantly reply to CNN’s request for remark. The grievance was first reported by The New York Times.
According to reveals filed with the grievance, Gadde alone spent greater than $1 million getting ready for her testimony in February earlier than the House Oversight Committee, when the panel held a listening to targeted on allegations that Twitter censored conservative speech.
The grievance additionally describes authorized charges linked to probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, although with out disclosing many specifics of the investigations. The references to federal investigations underscore the persevering with authorized threat for Twitter underneath Musk, who’s concurrently struggling to shore up firm funds whereas pushing a skeleton crew to make vital adjustments to the product.
The SEC has beforehand probed Musk’s funding in and deal to purchase Twitter, together with his obvious delay in disclosing his giant possession stake within the social media firm. And final month, the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged a wide-ranging investigation into Twitter’s privateness practices. The Justice Department has not beforehand confirmed any investigation into the corporate.
The lawsuit outlines some particulars concerning the DOJ and SEC probes. It claims that Agrawal and Segal first started receiving requests from U.S. officers round July of final 12 months. Agrawal continued to subject requests via the autumn and after he stepped down from Twitter, in keeping with the grievance. And late final 12 months, it stated, the Justice Department contacted Agrawal and Segal’s attorneys about a number of investigations into Twitter.
Letters to Twitter looking for reimbursement for the authorized bills have been ignored for months, in keeping with the grievance. In March, the corporate allegedly responded by acknowledging the requests for reimbursement, however took no motion to pay. As of Monday, the executives nonetheless haven’t recovered the charges, the grievance stated.
