Elon Musk’s Twitter says there’s a good reason not to pay for the $200,000 private jet trip: The company overcharged us
Twitter Inc. fired back at a private jet provider suing over unpaid bills, saying the company overcharged the social media giant’s marketing director to fly across the country in October to meet up with the new airline to meet owner Elon Musk.
Leslie Berland, Twitter’s chief marketing officer at the time, was flying coast-to-coast on jets provided by Private Jet Services Group LLC on Oct. 26-27 as Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the platform . Berland was a primary point of contact with Musk, personally escorting him on a tour of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters before returning to her New Jersey office.
Berland was fired in early November along with about half of the Twitter workforce. When Private Jet Services billed $197,725 for the flights from Berland a few days later, Twitter dismissed the bills, saying the flights were booked by unauthorized employees.
In court filings filed Tuesday in federal court in New Hampshire, Twitter complained that Private Jet Services grossly inflated fees for Berland’s trip, charging up to twice the usual rate depending on the type of aircraft used.
“The market price for private next-day, round-trip coast-to-coast air charter services in mid-size jets is estimated at $70,000-$96,000 and in large jets at $88,000-$156,000,” Twitter’s attorneys said. “These ranges are significantly lower” than the calculation for the Berland flights.
Twitter’s lawyers also claimed that the company does not have to pay because the articles of incorporation were arranged by Berland’s executive assistants and the executive assistant of Twitter’s then-CEO Parag Agrawal. According to the filing, none of the employees are any of the four “designated agents” named in Twitter’s contract as authorized bookers.
Since Musk’s purchase, Twitter has failed to pay millions of dollars in rent for its San Francisco headquarters and London offices, has been sued by multiple contractors for unpaid services, and has auctioned off everything from bird statues to espresso machines to raise money. He’s also openly floated the idea of bankruptcy, citing a “massive drop in revenue” when some advertisers fled the platform, and downsizing since completing his leveraged buyout.
Private Jet Services’ complaint included internal Twitter emails regarding the bill, including one from Agrawal’s assistant, which indicated that the CEO had paid Berland’s charter costs as “urgent in the week the deal was closed “, had signed.
However, Marty O’Neill, the Twitter executive who received the email, dismissed the allegations, saying, “The new management won’t budge.”
Twitter urged the New Hampshire judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the charges fell outside the bounds of his charter agreement.
Timothy McLaughlin, the charter company’s attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.
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