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 246 points 1 week 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 111 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Best find a different ATM.

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

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

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[–] LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago (3 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 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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. But that was clearly an overvalued sale. Just look at the valuation over time.

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

that is the worst chart

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[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's not real money, and Musk isn't the richest person in truth, not by a long shot. This is theoretical money based on overpriced companies that are propped up by what I suspect are some rather shady practices and investors using it as a casino stock.

[–] theolodis@feddit.org 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The money doesn't have to be real for Elon to be able to use his stock as collateral for billion dollar loans. So he in fact has real money, that banks gave him, and that he will never pay back.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wake me when that happens.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

Sanka, ya dead?

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[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Fines are not assessed that way.

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Some are, but they often have maximum caps.

So for a UK speeding fine he'd get a £1000, but if it's wasn't capped it would be somewhere in the region of 340 million.

Your Speeding Offence Details

Speed Limit: 30 mph Recorded Speed: 35 mph Excess Speed: 5 mph Offence Band: A Road Type: Standard Road What This Means For You

Your offence falls into Band A, which carries a fine of 50% of your weekly income. Based on your weekly income of £640,000,000, your calculated fine is £320,000,000. This has been capped at the maximum of £1000 for standard road offences.

[–] yakko@feddit.uk 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why would any such fines be capped, unless the entire point is to effectively legalise crime for the ultra rich?

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[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 104 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 52 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] org@lemmy.org 7 points 1 week 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

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 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 6 points 1 week ago

Antonin Scalea capped punative damages

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[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 50 points 1 week 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 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

admit any wrongdoing.

So, the Trump school of leadership.

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[–] stephen@lazysoci.al 38 points 1 week 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 30 points 1 week ago

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

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week 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 12 points 1 week 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 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] rogsson@piefed.social 27 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week 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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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week 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?

[–] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's assuming they can even get him to pay it.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

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

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 16 points 1 week ago

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

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week 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 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 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 15 points 1 week 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 6 points 1 week 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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[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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[–] jontree255@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)
  1. That’s chump change to him.
  2. He’s not going to pay it anyway.
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I think he can cut you a check for that in the court room.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

He'll have it back in a month...

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago

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

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hope the Saudis treat a fraudster as harshly as a journalist

[–] quarkquasar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

He must pay a pittance, to be paid in 20 equal installments of one-twentieth of a pittance each.

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