Elon Musk alleges that Twitter Inc. officials ordered a whistleblower to destroy evidence of the company's missteps as part of a $7.8 million severance package at issue in a legal fight over the billionaire’s attempt to cancel a buyout of the social media platform.
Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s former head of security, said he burned 10 handwritten notebooks and deleted 100 computer files at the behest of company managers as part of a severance agreement, according to unsealed court filings. The books contained notes of the whistleblower’s meetings with company counterparts during his yearlong tenure as security chief, the filings show.
Zatko has been at the center of Musk’s arguments that Twitter misled him about a raft of operational problems at the social media platform — which he said justified him walking away from the $44 billion buyout. The billionaire then reversed course last week and agreed to buy the company for the original $54.20-per-share price.
