Elon Musk accused Twitter of forcing a whistleblower to destroy evidence to receive a severance package.
Musk’s legal team accused Twitter in filings unsealed on Monday of forcing Peiter Zatko, the former Twitter head of security who came forward as a whistleblower, to burn 10 handwritten notebooks and delete 100 computer files to receive severance. The accusation was filed on Oct. 3, days before Musk made his decision to reaffirm his offer to buy the company.
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“Twitter’s attempt to buy Mr. Zatko’s silence failed, but Twitter achieved its secondary aim of ensuring Mr. Zatko’s corroborating evidence would never come to light,” the Oct. 3 filings said, according to Bloomberg.
The unsealed documents arrived a week after Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick approved a temporary stay to Twitter’s lawsuit, forcing Musk to uphold his original April offer to purchase the company for $44 billion. Musk sent a letter to Twitter on Oct. 3 to acquire the company, assuming that Twitter agreed to end the trial.
Musk’s deal is contingent on whether he can convince funders to provide $13 billion in debt financing to cover the purchase costs, Musk’s team said in an Oct. 3 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. At least two banks that initially agreed to provide $1 billion or more have ended talks with Musk to fund his purchase, according to Reuters.
The two parties quickly entered a legal spat, with Musk’s team alleging that Twitter “won’t take yes for an answer” when it comes to an end to the deal. The court approved a stay for the trial, saying they had until Oct. 28 to finalize the details of the acquisition.
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Zatko made news in August when he came forward alleging that the company had “egregious” security problems and that its staff had lied to the board of directors to hide its problems.
Zatko testified before Congress in September regarding the company’s security issues and allegations that foreign actors had been on Twitter’s payroll.
