Shareholder sues Tesla CEO Elon Musk

San Francisco: A Twitter shareholder has sued Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla CEO actively manipulated the company's stock for personal gain. The lawsuit alleged that Musk proceeded to make statements, send tweets, and engage in conduct designed to create doubt about the deal and "drive Twitter's stock down substantially in order to create leverage that Musk hoped to use to either back out of the purchase or re-negotiate the buyout price".

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Twitter shareholders in federal district court in San Francisco, The Verge reported late on Thursday.

"Musk's conduct was and continues to be illegal, in violation of the California Corporations Code, and contrary to the contractual terms he agreed to in the deal," the complaint read.

It focused on Musk's recent tweet that the $44 billion Twitter deal "cannot move forward" without more information about fake accounts and bots on the platform.

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