A San Francisco jury dominated Friday that Elon Musk defrauded Twitter buyers throughout his chaotic $44 billion acquisition of the platform in 2022 — and the damages might exceed $2.6 billion.

As reported on by Courthouse News Service, the case facilities on a sequence of tweets and public statements Musk made in Might 2022, when he publicly forged doubt on the deal by claiming spam and bot accounts made up a good portion of Twitter’s consumer base. Buyers argued he was manufacturing an excuse to both again out or renegotiate the deal on cheaper phrases, tanking the inventory within the course of. The lead plaintiffs within the case sued Musk in October 2022.

After deliberation, the jury unanimously discovered that Musk’s Might 13 and Might 17 tweets have been materially false or deceptive. They didn’t, nonetheless, discover him chargeable for a Might 16 convention remark wherein he claimed that 20% of Twitter users were spam accounts. The jury additionally rejected the plaintiffs’ broader fraud scheme claims.

Musk’s authorized crew has already signaled they’re going to enchantment, calling the decision “a bump within the street.”

Plaintiff legal professional Mark Molumphy advised Courthouse Information the decision makes clear that wealth would not exempt anybody from accountability — a degree that feels more and more worth making these days.