A nine-man jury in the United States has found Elon Musk liable for defrauding investors by deliberately driving down Twitter’s stock price in the months leading to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion.
However, the body absolved the businessman of some fraud allegations, finding that he did not “scheme” to mislead investors. The civil trial in San Francisco centred on a lawsuit filed before Musk took control of Twitter and later renamed it X.
The plaintiffs want the panel to decide if two tweets and comments Musk made on a podcast in May 2022 amounted to him intentionally defrauding Twitter shareholders, who sold their shares based on his statements. The panel returned the verdict after nearly four days of deliberation, after about three weeks since the trial began on March 2.
The jurors said while Musk was liable for misleading investors with two tweets, including one that said the Twitter deal was “temporarily on hold,” he did not do so with a statement he made on a podcast and that he did not intentionally “scheme” to defraud investors.
The jury awarded shareholders between about $3 and $8 per stock per day as damages, which the plaintiffs’ lawyers said amounts to about $2.1 billion in stock and another $500 million in options. Reacting on the verdict, an attorney for the plaintiffs, Mark Molumphy, described it as victory not just for the investor, but for Twitter itself.
“It’s an important victory, not just for investors of Twitter, but for the public markets. “I think the jury’s verdict sends a strong message that just because you’re a rich and powerful person, you still have to obey the law, and no man is above the law,” Molumphy said. However, referencing other cases won by Musk, his legal team said they will appeal.
