this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2026
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A jury has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors by deliberately driving down Twitter's stock price in the tumultuous months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion. But it absolved him of some fraud allegations, finding that he did not "scheme" to mislead investors.

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[–] Triumph@fedia.io 157 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If the punishment is a fine, it's only illegal for poor people.

The only war is class war.

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 69 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Considering he’s made $400B since acquiring Twitter, this was just a minor cost of doing business.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Best find a different ATM.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I don't know, 0.5% isn't a bad rate...

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[–] LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Considering he’s made $400B since acquiring Twitter...

Serious question: How?

AFAIK, Twitter wasn't terribly profitable before they sold to Musk. Then after he purchased it, the enshittification accelerated.

How on earth does this result in $400 Billions in profit?!?

[–] halcyoncmdr@piefed.social 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

He made $400B, not Twitter. That's almost entirely from Tesla and other ventures, not Twitter.

Last I've been able to find Twitter was valued at $33B when xAI bought it.

And that's just raw valuation which is easily manipulated, not revenue or profit, which can be easily manipulated.

[–] LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Ahh, okay. I understand. Thank you for the clarification.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

that is the worst chart

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not necessarily, the fine just needs to be a sufficient size.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Wake me when that happens.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Sanka, ya dead?

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[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (13 children)

Fines are not assessed that way.

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[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 64 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So that's like me paying a $20 fine. GOOD JOB

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Except he almost certainly won't be paying anywhere near that amount, if anything.

[–] org@lemmy.org 4 points 1 month ago

Right, he’s just not gonna pay. It’s not like they’re gonna go get the money from his bank account. Can you imagine Elon Musk being garnished? Never gonna happen

[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 56 points 1 month ago (2 children)

For the rest of us, there would be a seizure of assets and a prison term.

[–] CaliforniaSober@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

God bless Willy Nelson…

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[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

I don't understand why these courts charge a set fine for stuff like this. This is clearly an extremely unique case. The man is 20% shy of being a trillionaire.

What really needs to be done is they need to charge a percentage of his profits. Say 20 to 30%.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago

Antonin Scalea capped punative damages

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[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 32 points 1 month ago

That's a fine of $2 out of a total of $800.

I'd speed past cameras if I was running late, and that was the fine.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Spoiler alert: he won’t pay or admit any wrongdoing.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

admit any wrongdoing.

So, the Trump school of leadership.

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[–] stephen@lazysoci.al 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I wish “massive white color crime” for the expediency that a “Black dude swelling a bit of weed” got.

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[–] CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

That is the price of new phone for him compared to us...

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He's made billions more after and because of it so he doesn't give a shit about a meaningless, billion dollar fine.

[–] blady_blah@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's an ego thing, he'll hire a bunch of really expensive lawyers and drag it out as long as he can. This is what the rich do.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

if you drag it out, a billion dollar fine becomes a million real fast

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago

That's it, again?

JAIL TIME!

If I steal a bread to feed my hungry children I'll go to jail, but this guy ficks around with billions and all he gets is a tiny slap on his fingers?

[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago

Cool, so when this reaches Appeals court (which is where it's absolutely going next because they'll definitely appeal it), that 2.1B$ fine will get knocked down to 10$ and a blowjob (for Elon).

But hey, the Washington Post or whatever can get a nice little headline out of it where they pretend billionaires face any sort of punishment in this Capitalist hellscape for 5 seconds so that's nice.

[–] rogsson@piefed.social 12 points 1 month ago (5 children)

It should be % based of his income. Otherwise it’s not a punishment 

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This does not work because he will find a way to have 0 income (legally). I don't know how we can make the billionaires pay, but we should tax the assets not the incomes.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Drop in a bucket. He should be fined of the money he paid to buy Twitter.

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Oh No, point 2 % of his net worth

0.2%

literally less than a traffic ticket in terms of scale

[–] sunbeam60@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

I mean I dislike the guy as much as you, but almost all of his “wealth” is paper wealth. He may very well not be able to liquidate 2% of his wealth (fine with me).

[–] iglou@programming.dev 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He doesn't have to liquidate shit, none of them do. They borrow against their holdings.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Point is that if I commit fraud or steal anything over 10 dollars I might go to jail

This guy lies steals and cheats by the billions and he gets a hug

Jail the motherfucker already

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[–] 1984@lemmy.today 9 points 1 month ago

So the public paid to see another billionaire do things nobody else can do and get away with it. Nice.

[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  1. That’s chump change to him.
  2. He’s not going to pay it anyway.
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[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I wasn't invested in Twitter, but when I heard he was trying to get out of it I bought some stock. I knew he couldn't get out of the deal because it doesn't work like that and he's a dumb ass.

My only regret was not buying more. Thanks for the money, idiot.

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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I think he can cut you a check for that in the court room.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

They should repossess it and place it in the hands of a responsible steward...

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hope the Saudis treat a fraudster as harshly as a journalist

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