Twitter's former CEO Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde sues Twitter over 'unpaid bills'

The plaintiff said Twitter failed to uphold the agreement after they were fired

parag agrawal ap Parag Agrawal | AP

Months after they were sacked by Twitter's new owner Elon Musk, former CEO Parag Agrawal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and chief financial officer Ned Segal have sued the micro-blogging site for not reimbursing over $1 million in personal legal fees. 

As per the lawsuit filed by the former employees in Delaware  Chancery Court, though Twitter agreed to reimburse the executives in case of litigation or other situations where they required counsel, it failed to uphold the agreement after the trio were fired from the company. 

The plaintiffs allege that despite them demanding the payment in writing, Twitter offered only "a cursory acknowledgement of receipt, but still refused to acknowledge its obligations."

They alleged that they personally incurred "significant expenses" handling investigations and lawsuits, including those related to an investigation by the US Department of Justice.  

There were also circumstances wherein Gadde was subpoenaed to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. In another incident, she was sued by a disgruntled Twitter user who claimed she 'doxed' him as a white supremacist. 

As for Agrawal and Segal, they had also spoken to federal authorities with regard to the probe conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the DOJ, reported The Daily Beast.

However, it is unclear which DOJ investigation the plaintiffs were mentioning, while the SEC investigation is on whether Musk breached securities regulations by failing to make timely disclosures during his purchasing of a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter.

Agrawal, Gadde and Segal have included their indemnification agreements with Twitter in the lawsuit. 

Agrawal, Gadde and Segal were fired last October after Musk took over Twitter. The top executives were fired "for cause," a clause that put their mammoth payouts between $20 million to $60 million under the merger agreement in jeopardy. However, it is unclear whether they would approach the court against it.

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