US judge upholds verdict that held Elon Musk responsible for deceiving Twitter investors

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In the decision, District Judge Charles Breyer, from San Francisco, maintained the main conclusions of the trial held in March of this year. At the same time, he understood that Musk cannot be held responsible for one of the statements questioned in the process.
The judge also denied the businessman's request to remove the collective nature of the action brought by the investors. Furthermore, it authorized the possible compensation to be increased by interest for the period prior to the sentence.
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Understand what motivated the process
The action was filed by investors who sold Twitter shares during negotiations for Musk's purchase of the company, concluded in 2022 for US$44 billion.
They claim that the businessman published messages and made public statements that affected the share price while trying to renegotiate the deal or back out of the acquisition.
The main focus of the dispute was a publication made on May 13, 2022, in which Musk stated that the purchase of Twitter was "temporarily suspended" pending information about the number of fake and spam accounts on the platform.
After publication, the company's shares fell, harming investors who sold their shares during the period of uncertainty.
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What did the jury decide?
After almost three weeks of trial and around four days of deliberation, a jury made up of nine people concluded, in March this year, that Musk misled investors with two tweets published during negotiations to buy Twitter.
The jurors, however, understood that a statement made by the businessman in a podcast he expressed only an opinion, not misleading information. They also rejected the accusation that Musk had devised a deliberate plan to defraud the market.
Despite this, they concluded that two of his tweets were sufficient to cause losses to investors.
According to the lawyers for the plaintiffs, the decision could result in the payment of around US$2.1 billion in compensation related to the shares, in addition to approximately US$500 million related to share purchase options.
The definitive value, however, will still depend on the next stages of the process.
According to the authors of the action, Musk sought to reduce the purchase price or abandon the business, which had become more expensive for him after the fall in Tesla's shares, the main source of his fortune.
After announcing that he would not proceed with the acquisition, Musk began to face a lawsuit filed by Twitter itself to force him to comply with the agreement. Shortly before the trial of this case, he went back and agreed to complete the purchase for the originally agreed US$44 billion.
*With information from Reuters and the Associated Press

Source: G1