Former Twitter employees, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, ex-legal head Vijaya Gadde, and ex-CFO Ned Segal, have sued the social network over alleged unpaid legal reimbursements.
The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, alleged that Twitter has to pay over $1 million to the former executives for legal bills they incurred while at the company to respond to requests by the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.
“This action seeks an expedited ruling requiring Defendant to comply with its obligations to advance legal fees and expenses relating to ongoing litigation and investigations,” the lawsuit says.
The document lists a number of legal battles and government probes these execs were involved in over the years as defendants. The plaintiffs wrote to Twitter multiple times demanding the reimbursement, but they just got acknowledgment receipts in response, the document added.
The filing says that Twitter “breached the agreements [with employees] and contravened the bylaws” by not paying the former employees.
After Elon Musk took over Twitter last October, he immediately fired Agrawal, Gadde, and Segal. At that time Bloomberg reported that these execs had an exit package of more than $100 million.
Twitter has become the subject of multiple lawsuits after Musk became its owner. These include cases by former employees and contractors alleging the company fired them without adequate notice and by several vendors who are accusing the company of not paying bills on time.
The social media company is also involved in a legal battle in Germany, where authorities are seeking to fine Twitter over failing to remove hate speech. Under the country’s Network Enforcement Act (aka, NetzDG), companies could be fined up to €50 million for violation of the rules.
Apart from Gadde, Twitter has lost a few legal heads in the past few months including James Baker in December and Christian Dowell earlier this month.
