Four former senior executives of Twitter have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and X Corp., claiming they are owed over $128 million in unpaid severance payments. The executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett, were fired without cause on the day Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in 2022. Musk, who rebranded the company as X, allegedly fired the executives to avoid paying their severance and appointed employees from his other companies to uphold his decision.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, accuses Musk of not paying severance and bills, claiming that this is part of a pattern for the billionaire. The former executives allege that Musk believes the rules don't apply to him and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him. They claim that Musk has been sued by numerous former Twitter employees who were terminated without receiving severance.

The executives argue that their severance plans entitled them to one year's salary plus unvested stock awards valued at the acquisition price of Twitter, which Musk bought for $44 billion. They were all fired without cause, despite the narrow definition of “cause” in their severance plans. The lawsuit claims that Musk only cited "gross negligence and willful misconduct" as the reason for their terminations, which the executives deny.

According to court documents, Musk has a history of withholding payments he owes to others and forcing them to sue him to collect. The executives' lawyers describe this as the "Musk playbook," where he avoids paying what he owes and imposes delay, hassle, and expense on those less able to afford it. The lawsuit also mentions that Musk previously had to pay the executives $1.1 million to cover legal fees they incurred during investigations into the company.

Representatives for Musk and X have not yet responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit. The executives are seeking to recover their unpaid severance and hold Musk accountable for his actions during the acquisition of Twitter.