Elon Musk lost a courtroom fight in California after a jury said he defrauded Twitter shareholders during the messy run-up to his $44 billion takeover of the company. The verdict came on Friday and handed a win to investors who said his public comments hurt them while the deal was still playing out.

The verdict in the class action securities lawsuit means the world's richest person could be ordered to pay billions of dollars, according to damages calculated by jurors.

The shareholders accused Musk of deliberately driving down Twitter’s stock price with tweets and public statements in that interim period that suggested the deal might not go through.