Billionaire Elon Musk is being sued by four former Twitter executives who claim the CEO owes them $128 million over the wrongful termination. Former employees say they were fired shortly after Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the social media company in October 2022.

Among those seeking monetary compensation are former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former Twitter Head of Legal, Policy and Trust Vijaya Gadde and former Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett .

Connected: Twitter is being sued for $500 million by laid-off employees who claim they were fired

The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where Twitter was once headquartered.

document claims that Musk fired the executives “without reason” because he did not want to pay their benefits and invented a “false cause” to leave him, citing that Musk wrote that the employees had committed “gross negligence” and ” willful misconduct”. “no evidence to support the claims.

“After defendant Elon Musk finally agreed to buy Twitter, Inc. for $44 billion, the stock market plunged and Musk tried to back out of the deal, despite having no legal or contractual justification to do so. Twitter's sued Musk to enforce the settlement, and over the course of months of intense litigation, each of Musk's baseless excuses was thrown out,” the document says. “Under Musk's control, Twitter has become a laughingstock, stiffing employees, owners, vendors and others. Musk doesn't pay the bills, believes the rules don't apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to outdo anyone. who does not agree with him”.

In typical Musk fashion, he responded brazenly to the accusations at X.

First, the billionaire posted a crying laughing emoji in response to a user who wrote: “Parag Agrawal is suing Elon Musk claiming he actually did a lot that week.”

?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 4, 2024

In a second reply, Musk wrote “If the emoji fits” below a post by Agrawal and a clown emoji.

If the emoji fits… ?♂️

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2024

This isn't Twitter's first takedown lawsuit.

In July 2023, the billionaire was hit with a $500 million class action lawsuit by ex-Twitter employees who claimed they were not paid the pay they were promised, which was said to be “two months of their base salary plus one week's pay for each year of full service” after dismissal.

Connected: Elon Musk gets into Twitter war with ex-employee

“There were a lot of people who didn't seem to have much value,” Musk told the Wall Street Journal last May. CEO Council Summit in London, regarding massive layoffs and layoffs immediately following his takeover of the company. “I think there is scope for significant cuts in other companies without affecting their productivity, actually increasing their productivity.