Another lawsuit alleges that the world’s second richest man doesn’t believe the rules apply to him.
Elon Musk said Twitter would only “over” pay the rent for its San Francisco headquarters [his] corpse,” according to a high-profile lawsuit filed Tuesday by six former employees against him and the San Francisco-based Delaware social media company. The lawsuit lists myriad allegations against Musk and his Twitter transition team. They said they flouted city ordinances to convert parts of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters into bedrooms, breached severance promises to employees, intentionally violated supplier contracts, and attempted to force reputational damage on employees.
It also notes the alleged complicity of Musk’s closest Twitter circle, including The Boring Company CEO Steve Davis and his partner Nicole Hollander, venture capitalist Pablo Mendoza, and attorney Alex Spiro. According to the lawsuit, Davis and Hollander instructed an employee to violate permitting rules and avoid writing details of the illegal renovations at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
In one alleged incident, Davis told an employee not to bother with permits or a licensed plumber for a new bathroom in Musk’s office, adding that management doesn’t care whether it’s by lease, city, California or U.S. standards another authority would be complied with.
On Dec. 9, according to the lawsuit, Mendoza said Musk had decided that Twitter would stop paying rent globally. And Spiro, who has represented Jay-Z, Alec Baldwin, Megan thee Stallion and Robert Kraft in the past, reportedly said it’s unreasonable for Twitter’s landlords to expect rent payments from the company since San Francisco is a “S-thole.” may be.
The lawsuit also provides new details in Twitter’s “hotel room” saga, from the perspective of plaintiff Joseph Killian, a 10-year Twitter veteran who oversaw the company’s office construction and design until the transition team allegedly forced him into ethical quandaries.
When it was first announced in early December that Twitter would be installing beds at its headquarters, the San Francisco Building Control Board launched an investigation into the converted offices. City inspectors arrived and, according to the complaint, said, “It’s just furniture! We expected more drastic changes.” According to the Building Inspectorate, a site visit on December 7 ended with the inspector saying that “further investigation” was needed.
But Killian was ordered not to tell inspectors the furniture was just the beginning of the changes, the lawsuit says; He would be personally asked to turn off the motion-sensitive lighting system, turn on space heaters, and install locks that he feared would endanger life in the event of an earthquake or an increasingly likely fire. On December 10, Killian learned the locks had been installed despite his protests, the lawsuit said, and resigned that day.
City inspectors, allegedly unaware of the major changes, made it easy for the company in late January, issuing a notice asking Twitter to properly label the spaces within 15 days or return them to their original use.
It’s unclear if Twitter followed suit, but the new lawsuit has already sparked renewed pressure from the city. The Department of Building Inspection “has filed a new complaint and will conduct an investigation into these new allegations,” spokesman Patrick Hannan told SFGATE on Friday. The San Francisco Chronicle first reported the complaint. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
Have you heard that something is happening on Twitter? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council safely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or via Signal at 628-204-5452.
