[Waterluvian]

It’s basically a scumbag move to try to wear the former employees down. I imagine Twitter will just stonewall for as long as they possibly can.

What real consequences could the officers of the company actually face that would encourage them to behave like adults?

[janalsncm]

How about prison time for executives who use the legal system in bad faith? Refusing to pay is not permissible.

[TulliusCicero]

Sorry, wage theft is done by people in corporations, therefore it doesn't count as real theft, so going to jail for it is almost impossible.

If you wanna get away with a crime, do it in a company.

[jen20]

It need not be that way, as Sarbanes-Oxley demonstrates.

[TulliusCicero]

Agreed, it doesn't have to be that way, but for most crimes, it's currently that way. The kinds of things that would get an individual sent to jail usually get a corporation hit with a fine.

[KingMob]

I have this vague recollection that back in the 90's, some culture jamming collective tried to do adbusting defacement of billboards as an LLC, to avoid jail time.

Might have been a CrimethInc. cell, I don't recall.

[revscat]

This is America. Wage theft rarely gets punished, if ever.

[JellyBeanThief]

Give the plaintiffs significant shares in the company, transferred directly as a flat percentage from the other shareholders.

You will find it very hard to reach C-suite level at any publicly company where you cost your shareholders that way. And since it would constitute a violation of fiduciary duty, executives would be able to defend themselves when they take action to avoid that happening.

[MattGaiser]

Given that it is a private company, would those share be meaningfully valuable? Plenty of ways to screw minority shareholders in private markets.

[TheNewsIsHere]

In some places, and _generally_ California is one of them, certain executives and board members can be held personally liable for payroll issues.

Of course there must be a legal case, and enough money can buy some great attorneys, but there are laws that enable payroll disputes to pierce the corporate veil.

[wombat-man]

I think lawyers will be happy to push the issue forever. There's a big payout down the line here.