Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
- Four former Twitter execs, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk over their severance.
- They are collectively asking for $128 million, according to the suit.
- Musk has previously said he fired the execs for cause and doesn't owe severance.
Four former Twitter lieutenants who were fired following Elon Musk's 2022 takeover are now suing him, claiming unpaid severance.
They are collectively asking for $128 million, according to the federal lawsuit filed Monday in California obtained by Business Insider.
The plaintiffs in the suit are former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett.
The dispute has been ongoing for more than a year, according to The Wall Street Journal, after Musk said he fired the executives for cause and did not owe them severance.
"This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him," the suit reads. "Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it."
An attorney for Elon Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. A spokesperson for the plaintiffs had no further comment beyond what was described in the complaint.
This isn't the only severance-related suit Musk and X have faced. Last month, settlement talks surrounding a $500 million proposed class action suit over unpaid severance failed to reach a resolution, Reuters reported at the time. Separately, six former senior managers are also suing the company for severance pay.
Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde also sued Twitter in August for over $1 million, claiming the company owed them money for legal fees related to separation actions.
The $128 million suit filed Monday describes a scene from Musk's biography by Walter Isaacson, where the polarizing entrepreneur fast-tracks the closing of the acquisition precisely so he can fire Agrawal and other C-Suite execs for cause before their lucrative stock options vested.
Agrawal bitterly feuded with Musk prior to his termination at the company over bots and other issues, while Segal, the former CFO, previously said navigating Musk's backtracking around the deal had "pulled on every mental muscle I've developed in 48 years."