Lawsuit Claims Elon Musk Told Advisor That Twitter Would Only Pay Rent 'Over My Dead Body'

According to a recent lawsuit filed by six former Twitter employees in the District Court of Delaware, Elon Musk allegedly told an investor that he would only pay the rent of the company's office "over his dead body."

The conversation between the investor and Musk took place at 4 a.m, the Insider reported on Thursday. 

The lawsuit pointed out that Twitter failed to pay its staff severance and accused the defendants of violating 14 counts, including fraud, labor-rights laws, and breach of contract.

One of the plaintiffs named Joseph Killian, who worked with Twitter for 12 years, allegedly knew that Musk had decided not to pay rent last December. Killian purportedly got the information from venture capitalist Pablo Mendoza, an investor in Musk's Twitter acquisition, the lawsuit said. 

"Kilian attempted to convince Musk, via Mendoza, of the danger of Musk's new position that no rent would be paid whatsoever, pointing out that any attempt to renegotiate the terms of Twitter's many leases would be doomed to failure," it said.

"Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body," the lawsuit said Mendoza responded. 

The lawsuit also stated that Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said that it was unreasonable for Twitter's landlords to expect it to pay rent because San Francisco was a "sh*thole." 

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The landlords of Twitter's offices in San Francisco and London have sued Musk for not paying rent for many months. The social media company rents more than 460,000 square feet of space spread over eight floors of the San Francisco building. 

At the same time, Twitter has been bleeding advertisers since Musk took over, with several high-profile companies pausing promotions on the platform. 

The company posted a net loss of $270 million in the second quarter that ended June 30, 2022, compared to a profit of $66 million in the same period the prior year. 

Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion and is under pressure to cut costs after making a deal that analysts believe he overpaid.

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Photo: Steve Jurvetson via flickr