
According to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which cited people familiar with the situation, Twitter Inc. agreed in June to pay around $7 million to the whistleblower whose claims would be included in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the business.
The whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who was sacked by Twitter in January and served as the company’s security chief, alleged last month that the social media business had misrepresented its security measures and made false claims about its defenses against spammers and hackers.
According to the WSJ investigation, the deal was finished a few days before Zatko submitted his whistleblower complaint in July. According to the WSJ, the secretive deal in June covered Zatko’s unpaid wages and came after months of mediation over tens of millions of dollars in potential compensation.