Elon Musk faces billions in damages after brutal court loss

[turbinetree]

By Erik De La Garza
Published March 20, 2026 6: 30 PM ET

A California jury found Friday that Elon Musk misled Twitter investors in the lead-up to his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company, potentially exposing him to billions in damages, according to multiple reports.

The verdict in the class-action case stems from claims that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO – who also served a controversial tenure as President Donald Trump’s DOGE head – made misleading statements during his 2022 effort to purchase Twitter. Musk later renamed the social media platform to X.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said total damages could reach as much as $2.6 billion, CNBC reported Friday. Musk, however, was cleared of some fraud allegations, the outlet added.

https://www.rawstory.com/elon-musk-twitter-lawsuit-2676472569/

He got off on the fraud charges...............damn it.........

[Midnight Writer]

1. Let's see. $2.6 billion out of an estimated $450 to 750 billion. Wow. That has got to sting.

I reckon he will learn his lesson from that.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Exactly. Means nothing to him.

[OC375]

3. So we all gets paid now?

Where does the $2.6 billion even go when these Bozos get pinched playing billionaire game?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Jury finds Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter purchase, absolves him of some fraud claims

Musk did some clearly illegal/fraudulent acts in the acquisition of twitter. There is also litigation pending brought by the SEC against Musk for violation of the securities laws. Musk defrauded shareholders in order to lower the price that Musk paid for twitter.

Link to tweet

https://abc7ny.com/post/jury-finds-elon-musk-misled-investors-during-twitter-purchase-absolves-fraud-claims/18742586/

- A jury has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors by deliberately driving down Twitter's stock price in the tumultuous months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion. But it absolved him of some fraud allegations, finding that he did not "scheme" to mislead investors.

The civil trial in San Francisco centered on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X. Jurors were asked to decide if two tweets and comments Musk made on a podcast in May 2022 amounted to him intentionally defrauding Twitter shareholders, who sold their shares based on Musk's statements.

The nine-person jury returned the verdict after 3 days of deliberation, nearly three weeks after the trial began on March 2. They said that while Musk was liable for misleading investors with two tweets - including one said the Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold," he did not do so with a statement he made on a podcast and that he did not intentionally "scheme" to defraud investors.

Because it is a class action case, it is not clear what amount in damages Musk will have to pay to thousands of shareholders, many of them institutional investors, but it is likely in the billions. The jury awarded shareholders between about $3 and $8 per stock per day

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Elon Musk and SEC in talks to settle lawsuit over Twitter deal

Musk violated one of the key provisions of the securities law designed to protect shareholders. I am a corporate law/securities lawyer. It is well established law that one has to make a public report with the Securities and Exchange Commission when they have more than 5% of the stock of a public company. When one is doing a public takeover, you time the moment that you go over 5% carefully and after you cross that threshold, there is race to buy as much stock as possible.

Elon Musk ignore this statutory requirement. The court is right that Musk broke the law and has no excuse. By breaking the law, Musk admits that he save himself $150 million in the takeover of Twitter, Inc. See https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220993248
Musk is trying to settle this judgement

Elon Musk and SEC in talks to settle lawsuit over Twitter deal

— CNBC (@cnbc.com) 2026-03-17T19:47:05Z

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/elon-musk-sec-in-talks-to-settle-government-lawsuit-over-twitter-deal.html

Elon Musk is in talks with the ​Securities and ‌Exchange Commission to settle a lawsuit filed by the regulator last year accusing the world’s richest person of violating securities law in the run-up to his Twitter buyout.

In a court ⁠filing on Tuesday, the SEC revealed that it is “engaged in discussions of a potential resolution that would mean further ⁠proceedings might not be necessary” with Musk.

The SEC initially filed the suit in January 2025, and the case is proceeding in a federal court in Washington, D.C. A separate, class-action lawsuit filed by former Twitter investors against Musk is now winding its way through a federal court in San Francisco, with a jury expected to deliberate soon.

Musk, who is CEO of Tesla
and SpaceX, purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and changed its name to X the following year. Prior to the acquisition, he’d built up a position in the company of greater than 5%, which would’ve required disclosing his holdings to the public within 10 calendar days of reaching that threshold. He was late to file that disclosure.

The SEC said in its complaint that Musk’s failure to disclose the stake allowed him to buy shares at “artificially low prices,” putting other investors at a disadvantage.

This litigation is separate from the private lawsuit described in the OP

[turbinetree]

6. Thank you..............for pointing this out.........

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Congratulations to the attorneys. We still have a dying democracy as a result of his bullshit...

Lord, I miss the guillotine.