Home / Business and Economy / Jury weighs Musk's Twitter statements in fraud trial
Jury weighs Musk's Twitter statements in fraud trial
18 Mar
Summary
- Musk accused of driving down Twitter stock price.
- Lawyer claims Musk's tweets were fraudulent statements.
- Jury deliberating Musk's liability for stock drop.
Elon Musk faces a lawsuit from former Twitter shareholders who accuse him of defrauding them. The core of the case revolves around Musk's public statements in 2022 questioning the prevalence of fake accounts on the platform, which plaintiffs argue artificially depressed the stock price. His lawyers contend these concerns were genuine and that his tweets did not amount to fraud.
The jury is deliberating whether Musk's statements about bot numbers were fraudulent and if he schemed to defraud shareholders. The lawsuit covers investors who sold Twitter stock between May 13 and October 4, 2022. Musk's legal team argues that the plaintiffs have not proven fraud, only that the stock might not have fallen if he had remained silent.
Musk's initial agreement to purchase Twitter for $44 billion was followed by his public doubts about the platform's bot figures. This led to legal battles, including Twitter suing Musk to complete the takeover, which he eventually did in October 2022. Twitter was later rebranded as X and is now part of SpaceX.
