A jury in the federal court in San Francisco found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors. It said he deliberately drove down Twitter's stock price in the months leading up to his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company in 2022.
However, it absolved him of some fraud allegations, finding that he did not “scheme” to mislead investors.
The civil trial was focused on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X.
Jurors were reportedly asked to decide if two tweets and comments Musk made on a podcast in May 2022 amounted to him intentionally defrauding Twitter shareholders, who sold their shares based on Musk's statements.
The panel awarded shareholders damages ranging from about $3 to $8 per share per day, which lawyers for the plaintiffs said adds up to roughly $2.1 billion.
