A jury in San Francisco ruled on Friday that Elon Musk misled Twitter investors during his chaotic $44 billion takeover of the platform in 2022, with potential damages surpassing $2.6 billion. As reported by Courthouse News Service, the case centered around tweets and public remarks Musk made in May 2022, in which he raised concerns about the acquisition by claiming that spam and bot accounts made up a substantial part of Twitter’s user base. Investors accused him of crafting a rationale to either back out of or renegotiate the deal at a lower figure, resulting in a drop in stock prices. The lead plaintiffs initiated a lawsuit against Musk in October 2022.

Following their deliberation, the jury found unanimously that Musk’s tweets from May 13 and May 17 were significantly false or misleading. However, they absolved him of liability for a remark made during a May 16 conference in which he claimed that 20% of Twitter users were spam accounts. The jury also rejected the plaintiffs’ allegations regarding a broader scheme of fraud.

Musk’s legal representatives have stated intentions to appeal, labeling the decision as “a bump in the road.” Plaintiff attorney Mark Molumphy remarked to Courthouse News that the verdict highlights that wealth does not shield anyone from accountability, a notion that is increasingly significant today.