A US federal judge yesterday rejected Elon Musk’s bid to void a jury verdict finding that the world’s richest person defrauded Twitter investors by trying to drive down the social media company’s stock price after agreeing to a $44 billion takeover.
US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco also denied Musk’s motion to decertify the class of investors, and granted the investors’ motion for prejudgment interest. The judge did, however, find Musk not liable for one of his challenged tweets.
“Even if the speaker has a change of heart or a momentary regret about a transaction, such qualms do not justify lying to the investing public,” Breyer wrote.
A lawyer for the investors had estimated following the March 20 verdict that damages could total about $2.5bn.
Musk changed Twitter’s name to X, and it is now part of his rocket and satellite company SpaceX. He also faces a lawsuit in Manhattan claiming he defrauded Twitter investors by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment, letting him buy shares cheaply and causing them to sell at low prices.
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