Twitter launched a lawsuit against the elite corporate law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz on Friday, accusing it of taking advantage of its client by charging Twitter $90 million in legal costs for “a few months” of services. The lawsuit wants to recover the money spent.
“Fully aware that nobody with an economic interest in Twitter’s financial well-being was minding the store, Wachtell arranged to effectively line its pockets with funds from the company cash register while the keys were being handed over to the Musk Parties,” the lawsuit stated.
Around July of last year, Musk recruited Wacthell, a firm that specialises in mergers and acquisitions, to enforce his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Musk made an attempt to back out of the agreement at that time by objecting to certain of the information in Twitter’s financial filings.
According to the lawsuit, Wachtell added a $84.3 million “success fee” and a $16 million invoice for hourly services to the final price it charged the company for hiring Musk.
Minutes before the purchase completed, $84 million was allegedly sent to the legal firm, according to the lawsuit.
Musk charged Wachtell on Twitter with specialising “in institutionalised corruption.”
Musk has contested a number of bills, including the legal charge. Since buying the business, Musk has refused to cover certain former employees’ travel expenditures, office rent, and, in the past, Google Cloud service fees.
