Musk Slams Jury Verdict in Twitter Fraud Case, Calls $4.20 Figure Mockery

Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro accused jurors of "mocking" his client by writing the number "$4.20" in bright blue on the verdict form, though all remaining entries were written in black. The filing, made Thursday in San Francisco federal court, targeted a verdict that already carried billion-dollar consequences for the world's wealthiest person.

The number 420 is associated with marijuana culture, and Musk has often invoked it in interviews and tweets and in business dealings, including when he valued Twitter at $54.20 per share in his $44 billion buyout. In 2018, he also tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private at "$420" per share, a post that triggered an SEC fraud case.

Spiro called the jury's choice a "numerical joke" that was "no doubt intentional," and argued that when combined with other alleged trial errors, it called into question the March 20 verdict, where damages could reach $2.5 billion. He said "further inquiry" by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer was needed.

A handwritten verdict form in which jurors listed "$4.20" is grounds for a new trial, according to Musk's lawyer, who is pushing to overturn the jury's verdict — a move that could upend the ruling just days after it was reached.

The underlying verdict, returned March 20, was a rare courtroom loss for Musk. A jury found him liable for misleading investors by deliberately driving down Twitter's stock price in the months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion, but absolved him of some fraud allegations. The nine-person jury returned the verdict after nearly four days of deliberation, nearly three weeks after the trial began on March 2, finding that while Musk misled investors with two tweets, including one that said the Twitter deal was "temporarily on hold," he did not do so with a podcast statement and did not intentionally "scheme" to defraud investors.

According to Spiro, juror questionnaires revealed "deep" negative views of Musk, and the court was unable to fully screen out biased jurors due to the prevalence of those opinions. He also claimed opposing counsel engaged in "gamesmanship" that sidelined him from a central trial role.

On the damages, estimates from plaintiffs' counsel diverged. The jury awarded shareholders between about $3 and $8 per stock per day as damages, which plaintiffs' lawyers said amounts to about $2.1 billion. Mark Molumphy, a lawyer for the investors, said after the verdict he thinks the damages will amount to $2.6 billion. Molumphy called it "the largest securities jury verdict in United States history."

Joseph Cotchett, Molumphy's partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP and an attorney for the plaintiffs, said: "It's an important victory, not just for investors of Twitter, but for the public markets. I think the jury's verdict sends a strong message that just because you're a rich and powerful person, you still have to obey the law, and no man is above the law."

Musk plans to appeal the decision, according to his lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, who noted unrelated wins on appeal in Texas and Delaware. "We view today's verdict, where the jury found both for and against the plaintiffs and found no fraud scheme, as a bump in the road," Quinn Emanuel said in a statement. "And we look forward to vindication on appeal."

The verdict marks a rare defeat for Musk, who has been dubbed "Teflon Elon" for his track record of winning high-stakes legal battles many expected him to lose; he prevailed in a 2023 trial over Tesla investors' allegations that he misled them in a tweet saying he had "funding secured" to take the electric carmaker private. Whether the $4.20 notation ultimately becomes the basis for a new trial now rests with Judge Breyer.