Elon Musk’s Twitter accused of not paying $14m in bills across nine lawsuits

Twitter is facing a number of lawsuits that claim the social media platform has not paid its bills.

At least nine lawsuits against Twitter, under Elon Musk, claimed that the demand for payments from landlords, consultants, and vendors in the recent months has grown to more than $14m, excluding interest, according to reports.

This comes even as Mr Musk claimed last year in December that the social media platform was on its way to breaking even in 2023.

He said at that time: “This company is like, basically, you are in a plane that is headed toward the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don’t work.”

And with the changes that he implemented at the company, he assured: “I now think that Twitter will, in fact, be OK next year.”

Among the lawsuits against Twitter, one claimed that a bill of $7000, for a “swag gift box for Elon” that was ordered by Twitter’s marketing department before the takeover, has been pending.

The plaintiff in one of the other nine lawsuits sought dismissal and the case was closed last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The outlet quoted Van Conway, a renowned restructuring expert who has helped companies in distressed financial situations for decades, as saying: “What Elon Musk is doing is basically simulating a bankruptcy. He is taking a machete to his costs.”

Three of the nine lawsuits involved Twitter’s office space, including its headquarters in San Francisco. The landlord alleged that the social media giant failed to make almost $6.8m in rent payments for December and January. In January, employees of Twitter’s Singapore office were forced to walk out due to non-payment of office rent.

Another lawsuit by marketing company Canary LLC claimed that Twitter has not paid its bills amounting to almost $400,000.

Yet another firm claimed in its lawsuit that Twitter hasn’t paid its bills after it worked for the company on Mr Musk’s acquisition last year. Innisfree M&A Inc sued Twitter in New York state Supreme Court, seeking about $1.9m.

The lawsuit said: “As of 23 December 2022, Twitter remains in default of its obligations to Innisfree under the Agreement in an amount of not less than $1,902,788.03.”

As the acquisition deal was taking place, some Twitter executives arranged last-minute charter flights from New Jersey to San Francisco and back. According to one of the lawsuits filed in December in federal court in New Hampshire by Private Jet Services Group LLC, the company is seeking $197,725 from the social media giant.