Gary Zhou 
Elon Musk was the subject of a class-action lawsuit that was thrown out by a judge earlier this week, claiming the Twitter CEO cheated shareholders on several occasions in 2022 during his purchase of the social media platform.
Plaintiff William Heresniak sued Musk last May, just a month after Twitter accepted Musk’s $54.20 per share buyout offer. According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Heresniak did not have the standing to sue because he was not challenging the fairness of the buyout, only the “wrongs associated with” it.
Stemming from Musk’s delayed disclosure of a stake in Twitter that equated to 9.2 percent, the lawsuit said it let the CEO purchase more shares at a lower price.
There was also a lack of proof that Musk assisted in helping Jack Dorsey and Egon Durban, two members of the Twitter board and friends of his, breach fiduciary duties by favoring their own interests and not those of the company.
Judge Breyer said the actions of Dorsey did not “improperly divert” money from other shareholders. There was no wrongdoing on the parts of Musk or Dorsey during the buyout that were claimed in Heresniak’s lawsuit.
Musk’s attorneys have attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out on several occasions, and it was finally successful. On March 3, they said the Plaintiff’s claims were “a disjointed laundry list of — often irrelevant — grievances against Elon Musk.”
