Three former Twitter executives who were terminated by Elon Musk sued the company on Monday, alleging that they are owed reimbursement for more than $1 million in legal fees.
The executives are former CEO Parag Agrawal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and chief financial officer Ned Segal.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court, Twitter agreed to indemnify the execs in the case of litigation or other situations where they required counsel. But after their departure, they say, the company failed to uphold those agreements. Instead, two months after the plaintiffs demanded payment in writing, Twitter offered only “a cursory acknowledgement of receipt, but still refused to acknowledge its obligations.”
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The legal bills stem from a variety of circumstances. Gadde was subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and she was also sued by a disgruntled Twitter user who claimed she “‘doxed’ him as a white supremacist,” the lawsuit said.
Agrawal and Segal also spoke with “federal authorities in connection with” inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice, and their lawyers “have continued” to work with the feds, the filing continued. It’s not clear what those investigations were about, or whether the inquiries remain open.
All three executives included their indemnification agreements with Twitter in the lawsuit; Agrawal’s was unsigned, because he said the company hasn’t responded to his requests for the original documentation.
Under Musk’s tenure, Twitter has aggressively worked to cut costs. It has shed roughly two-thirds of its staff, and as of February had reportedly been sued at least nine times for failing to pay bills owed to “landlords, consultants and vendors.”
Reached by email for comment, Twitter’s press office auto-replied with a poop emoji.
