A US federal jury this Friday (20) found billionaire Elon Musk responsible in a case in which he is accused of committing fraud against Twitter shareholders by trying to lower the price of the company’s shares so that it could renegotiate or give up on the acquisition of the social network for US$44 billion (approximately R$220 billion) in 2022.
Musk was accused of falsely claiming on social media that Twitter did not report how many , known as bots, existed on the platform.
The damages have not yet been calculated, but Francis Bottini, the shareholders’ lawyer, estimated that they could total around US$2.5 billion (approximately R$12.5 billion).
“Musk’s status as the richest man in the world is not a free pass,” Bottini said in a statement.
“If you are able to move markets with your tweets, you are responsible for the damage you cause to investors,” the lawyer added.
In a joint statement, Musk’s lawyers called the verdict “a bump in the road. And we look forward to it being vindicated on appeal.”
Musk has always opted to face shareholders in court rather than settle. The purchase of Twitter was completed in October 2022, and the company was later rebranded as X.
