“On June 28, 2022, Twitter entered into a separation agreement with Peiter Zatko pursuant to which Twitter paid severance payments to Mr. Zatko and his attorneys totaling $7.75 million”wrote the lawyers of the boss of Tesla in a letter sent Friday to the legal director of the platform.
They accuse Twitter of not having asked Elon Musk for his consent for this exceptional payment, and therefore, according to them, of having violated the rules of the agreement to buy the network for 44 billion signed by the two parties at the end of April.
At the beginning of July, the multi-billionaire had announced that he would break this commitment, accusing the San Francisco company of having deceived him, in particular on the question of the exact number of inauthentic accounts and spam.
Twitter quickly filed a complaint to compel the contractor to honor the terms of the agreement, and a trial is scheduled for mid-October.
This is the third letter that Elon Musk’s lawyers have sent to the group to justify their decision.
The first was that of the announcement of the rupture. The second, at the end of August, invokes the accusations made by the company’s former security chief, Peiter Zatko, as an additional argument.
Nicknamed “Mudge”, Mr Zatko accused Twitter of covering up vulnerabilities in its protection system and lying regarding its fight once morest fake accounts. Presenting himself as a whistleblower, he sent a long document to the American authorities at the beginning of July, but it was only revealed to the general public at the end of August.
“Musk’s camp is sending this additional break notice in case the July 8 or August 29 notice is deemed invalid for one reason or another.”specify the lawyers of the boss.
“They gave the guy 7 million to make sure he shut up”attorney Alex Spiro said during a court hearing on Tuesday.
Twitter lawyer William Savitt says Mr Zatko’s accusations are peppered “inconsistencies and inaccuracies”.
The idea that the platform sought to hide the allegations of its former security chief is “false and meaningless”he said on Tuesday. “In January, Mr. Zatko was fired. His accusations…had been reviewed and determined to be groundless.”
