Elon Musk accuses Twitter of fraud, wants ex-employee to testify in legal battle

Amid the ongoing legal battle over the $44 million deal, billionaire Elon Musk on Friday accused Twitter Inc of concealing “serious flaws in the social media company’s data security”, thereby committing a fraud.

Musk is also demanding Twitter to make the former product chief testify on spam or bot accounts on the social-media platform, Bloomberg reported.

“Needless to say, the newest revelations make undeniably clear that the Musk parties have the full right to walk away from the merger agreement – for numerous independently sufficient reasons,” said the amended lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s attorney.

Meanwhile, the micro-blogging giant maintains: “Mr. Musk’s claims are factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant,” news agency Reuters reported.

Last week, the Tesla CEO slammed Twitter for its decision to pay millions of dollars to a whistleblower it had fired earlier this year. Whistleblower Peiter Zatko, who served as Twitter’s security chief until he was fired, accused the company of falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and misleading regulators about its poor cybersecurity defences. He also alleged that the company neglected any attempts to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation.

Both Elon Musk and Twitter have issued subpoenas to banks, investors and lawyers involved in the deal as they seek ammunition for an Oct 17 trial before Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick in Wilmington. Last month, she ordered Twitter to turn over Beykpour’s internal files to Musk’s attorneys.