A federal jury in San Francisco has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors during his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022. He agreed in 2022 to buy the platform for $44 billion, but later attempted to withdraw from the deal. Plus, he made some remarks that allegedly shook Twitter’s credibility in the market.
CNBC reported on March 20 that the case centered on whether Musk made those comments to drive the company’s shares to the ground so that he could buy it at a much lower price. Former Twitter owners took the stand and the jury was out for days. Even ex-CEO Parag Agrawal and former CFO Ned Segal of Twitter appeared at the hearing.
Following four days of deliberation, the jury concluded Musk had misled investors while dismissing claims of a wider fraud scheme.
U.S. JURY FINDS ELON MUSK LIABLE TO TWITTER SHAREHOLDERS IN SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT RELATED TO $44 BILLION TAKEOVER, COURT RECORDS SHOW
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) March 20, 2026
“This is a great example of what you cannot do to the average investor… people that have 401ks, kids, pension funds, teachers, firemen, nurses. That’s what this case was all about. This was not about Musk. It was about the whole operation,” Joseph Cotchett said. He’s the legal counsel of the Twitter investors.
The lawsuit was filed by the Twitter shareholders who claimed that they lost money after Musk publicly accused the company of having “higher” fake/spam or bot accounts. Variety reported that at the time, Musk had already agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. Later, he began publicly questioning the company’s bot numbers and honesty.
Twitter’s share price subsequently fell to $30 per share, approximately 40% below Musk’s original $44 billion offer.
The trial focused on two tweets Musk posted in May 2022. One said, “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.” And another suggested the number of bots could be much higher than Twitter had disclosed. Jurors found those statements were misleading.
“20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk wrote on X before continuing, “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
The jury also found insufficient evidence to support claims of an overarching fraud scheme. The jury also found that a separate comment he made on a podcast was an opinion, not a false statement.
Elon Musk defrauded Twitter Inc. investors when he disparaged the company in 2022 in an effort to buy the social media platform for a lower price than his original $44 billion bid, a jury concluded.
Jurors in federal court in San Francisco found Friday that Musk intentionally…
— zamohappy (@zamohappy) March 20, 2026
The trial itself was closely watched and ran for nearly three weeks. Musk testified in court and repeated his claim that Twitter had hidden the real scale of spam and fake accounts. He said he believed the company’s public numbers were too low.
After Musk first tried to back out of the deal, Twitter dragged him to court in Delaware in 2022. This was done to force him to complete the purchase. Shortly before that case was scheduled for trial, Musk reversed course and completed the purchase. He closed the deal in October 2022 and later renamed Twitter as X.
CNBC reported that shareholder lawyers estimated total damages of approximately $2.6 billion, including losses from stock and options. Musk’s lawyers said they plan to appeal and called the verdict only a setback. A final amount will be decided later.
