This week, additional details about the circumstances of the dismissal from Twitter by Peter Zatko are now expected to be used to reject the company ' s asset purchase transaction. Zatko negotiated with Twitter management to obtain compensation for his early retirement, paid $7 million, and issued a condition not to disseminate information related to his previous job.
Peter Zatko, known in certain circles as Cybersecurity Specialist, was hired by Twitter management at the end of 2020, but worked with the company only until January. Until June, the specialist negotiated with the former management on the amount of monetary compensation, at a certain stage increasing the required amount by a factor of five times the original amount, as The Wall Street Journal reports with reference to its own sources. A few days before Zatko filed a complaint with the U.S. regulatory authorities in July, an agreement was entered into with him under which he received about $7 million in compensation from Twitter. Part of the agreement was the commitment by Zatko not to share publicly about the period of his work on Twitter, although complaints to the public authorities and statements to the authorities traditionally for such practices were on the list of exceptions. This right was ultimately used by the informant, and he was expected to make statements to the U.S. Senate.
Ilon Mask's lawyers are aware of the existence of these agreements between Peter Zatko and the Twitter authorities, but they tried to use this information to their advantage by telling them that the company had "paid $7 million for silence", although in fact the money was a compensation for the early termination of employment. Zatko's testimony, according to the court, will be included in Ilon Mask's arguments explaining why he refused to buy Twitter. The company's representatives continue to believe that Zatko was biased and his work on Twitter had nothing to do with determining the percentage of unreliable accounts and the amount of spam.