US judge tosses out Musk’s bid to void Twitter fraud verdict

Jurors had found Twitter owner Musk liable for tweets in which he questioned whether the platform was overrun by fake and spam accounts that had led to a slump in share prices.A United States federal judge has rejected Elon Musk’s bid to void a jury verdict finding that Musk, the world’s richest person, defrauded Twitter investors by trying to drive down the social media company’s stock price after agreeing to a $44bn takeover.US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, California on Monday also denied Musk’s motion to decertify the class of investors, and granted the investors’ motion for prejudgment interest. The judge did, however, find Musk not liable for one of his challenged tweets.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Belgian football body challenges reversal of Balogun’s World Cup suspensionlist 2 of 4Ticket prices continue to fall for USA-Belgium World Cup last-16 clashlist 3 of 4Flavio Bolsonaro asks Trump to delay tariffs on Brazil until after electionlist 4 of 4Left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez concedes Peru vote to Keiko Fujimoriend of list“Even if the speaker has a change of heart or a momentary regret about a transaction, such qualms do not justify lying to the investing public,” Breyer wrote.A lawyer for the investors had estimated following the March 20 verdict that damages could total about $2.6bn.Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Mark Molumphy, a lawyer for the investors, called it “a very good day” for investors in public markets, after jurors “rejected Musk’s effort to game that system”.Musk changed Twitter’s name to X, and it is now part of his rocket and satellite company SpaceX. He also faces a lawsuit in Manhattan in New York City claiming he defrauded Twitter investors by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment, letting him buy shares cheaply and causing them to sell at low prices.‘Falsity’Jurors found Musk liable for May 13 and May 17, 2022, tweets in which he questioned whether Twitter was overrun by fake and spam accounts, known as bots.