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Elon Musk accused Twitter’s former board of directors and their lawyers of "deliberately" hiding evidence from court proceedings, days after the entrepreneur's $44 billion deal was finalized.
"Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court," Musk tweeted Sunday night. He included a screenshot of internal messages from a Twitter executive referencing "fraudulent metrics."
"Stay tuned, more to come…," the billionaire added. Twitter was represented by Wachtell, Rosen, Lipton and Katz lawyers in their legal proceedings with the entrepreneur.
Proof of "fraudulent metrics" at Twitter may serve as a basis for arguments that Musk significantly overpaid in the $44 billion deal. Musk said earlier this month that he "obviously" paid more than the company was currently worth.
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SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks in Los Angeles June 13, 2019. (Reuters Photos)
In July, Musk told Twitter that he planned to terminate the deal he announced in April over speculations about the amount of spam accounts on the website, prompting Twitter to file a lawsuit.
After Twitter accused Musk of not following his obligations under their agreement, Musk filed a countersuit. The entrepreneur changed course by announcing that he would proceed with his original $54.20 per share offer to buy the platform in October.
In the screenshot, Twitter's Global Head of Safety & Integrity Yoel Roth suggested that he would imply a Twitter personnel named Amir used "fraudulent metrics" to report objectives and key results (OKRs).
"But also lol if Amir continues to BS me my escalation route is ‘Amir’s OKRs are entirely based on fraudulent metrics and he doesn't care and may actively be trying to hide the ball,'" the Twitter executive wrote.
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"Literally doing what Elon is accusing us of doing," Roth added. In a follow-up tweet on Sunday night, Musk said that he supported Roth after other Twitter users dug up old, apparently anti-Trump tweets from Roth.
"We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel," the Telsa founder wrote. "My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs."
Roth's comments about "fraudulent metrics" were made in a May 17 message – roughly the same time Musk accused Twitter of being "very suspicious" about its reporting of spam bots.
A Twitter logo is seen outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco April 25, 2022. (Reuters)
"I’m worried that Twitter has a disincentive to reduce spam, as it reduces perceived daily users," Musk tweeted on May 21.
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"They still refuse to explain how they calculate that 5% of daily users are fake/spam! Very suspicious," he added at the time.