Elon Musk Loses Again: Billionaire Must Pay $500Million in Severance to Thousands of Ex-Twitter Employees — as Trump's Ex-Pal Deals With Legal Nightmare
Looks like former Twitter employees have gotten the last laugh on Elon Musk.
Aug. 22 2025, Published 2:40 p.m. ET
Elon Musk is having a rough week, and his latest headache is having to dig into his pocket and pay former Twitter employees $500million, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The billionaire has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought on by the platform's ex-employees, who accused Musk of not forking over their severance pay after he took over the company in 2022.
Details Of The Lawsuit
Musk will have to pay half a billion dollars to thousands of former Twitter employees.
"The parties have reached a settlement agreement in principle and began negotiating the terms of a long-form settlement agreement,” the filing noted. "If the district court approves the proposed distribution, the agreement will resolve the litigation in its entirety and moot this appeal."
Two former staffers, Courtney McMillian and Ronald Cooper, had filed the original lawsuit against Musk, claiming Twitter's 2019 severance plan promised most employees at least two months of base pay plus a week of pay for every year of service. Meanwhile, senior staff were owed six months of base pay.
However, according to the lawsuit, most workers did not see a single penny.
While a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in July 2024, McMillian and Cooper appealed, and the case was set to go to trial before the agreement was made.
Elon's Other Lawsuit Explained
Musk was being accused of not paying the ex-employees any severance after cutting their jobs.
It is not yet known how much money each worker will receive.
Musk bought Twitter for $44billion in 2022, proceeded to change the popular platform's name to X, and then cut around 6,000 jobs.
The 54-year-old's problems do not end there, however. He was recently ordered by a judge to face a lawsuit claiming he ran an illegal $1million election lottery during Donald Trump's 2024 election run.
He is being accused of defrauding voters into signing a petition to support the U.S. Constitution, offering a chance to win cash.
An 'Illegal' Lottery?
The billionaire took over Twitter in 2022, rebranding it to X.
Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty claimed that Musk and America PAC induced voters in several battleground states to sign the petition, promising to choose one person per day to win $ 1million. However, the lawsuit, filed on November 5, 2024, Election Day, notes the voters never had a chance to collect the winnings.
According to McAferty, voters were required to provide personal information, including their addresses and phone numbers. Musk did his best to have the suit dismissed, listing "red flags" as proof he had not run the alleged illegal lottery.
Despite his pushback, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who was appointed by President Obama in 2014, pointed to other statements suggesting the defendants were "awarding" the money, and that the $1million could be "won."
"It is plausible that plaintiff justifiably relied on those statements to believe that defendants were objectively offering her the chance to enter a random lottery, even if that is not what they subjectively intended to do," the judge said in response.
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The Tesla boss is also being accused of running an 'illegal' election lottery to help get Donald Trump elected.
Musk pulled out every single trick to help Trump, 79, beat Kamala Harris in November, introducing his "lottery" to the masses. But not everyone was a fan of the idea, especially Philadelphia district attorney Lawrence Krasner, who tried to block the gimmicky contest.
"l'll be seeking a lot more money than that for what Elon Musk and America PAC have done," Krasner said. However, Pennsylvania judge Angelo Foglietta ruled Musk's sweepstakes was not illegal at the time.
