- A man has accused Elon Musk and his super PAC of failing to pay him for his 2024 campaign efforts.
- The Pennsylvania plaintiff alleges he's owed at least $20,000 for collecting petition signatures.
- "This case is about a broken promise," the man's attorney told Business Insider.
A canvasser says Elon Musk and the billionaire's super PAC never paid up after promising Pennsylvania voters cash for their efforts around the 2024 presidential campaign.
The Bucks County, PA, voter, who is using the pseudonym "John Doe" for what he said in court papers was for his "safety and security," filed a class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
The man says in the lawsuit he is owed at least $20,000 for signatures he collected as part of Musk's massive push to help the then-Republican candidate — and now president — Donald Trump get elected to a second term in the White House.
In the lead-up to the November 2024 election, Musk and his America PAC offered to pay registered voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania $100 for signing a petition backing free speech and gun rights — and an additional $100 for each referral of a registered voter who signed the petition.
The offer, which initially started at $47, was also made to registered voters in the other six battleground states.
"Plaintiff and Class Members accepted Defendants' offers by signing or successfully referring Pennsylvania registered voters to the America PAC petition," the lawsuit against Musk and his political action committee says. It adds that Musk and the PAC "have since failed to pay Plaintiff and Class Members in full for their signatures and referrals."
The lawsuit says that the plaintiff worked as a canvasser for Musk's America PAC ahead of the 2024 election and got many voters to sign the petition along the way.
The canvasser alleges that while he was paid his hourly rate for the work and for some referrals for the petition signatures he obtained, he says hasn't been paid at least $20,000 he is owed for his referrals.
"This case is about a broken promise: Elon Musk promised supporters that they would be paid for signing a petition and referring others to do the same," the man's attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, told Business Insider. "Our client relied on that promise because he believed in Elon, but unfortunately, that promise was not kept. It appears the promise was broken for many others as well."
The lawsuit says that the Pennsylvania man has repeatedly contacted Musk's super PAC "making multiple attempts to receive full payment for his referrals, but to no avail."
The alleged lack of payment has caused the man "significant emotional and physical distress," the lawsuit says.
"He relied on these payments to pay his bills and suffered damage to his credit and health when the payments did not arrive as expected," the court papers say.
The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract and seeks a trial by jury, says more than 100 other individuals could be owed money and that the amount at issue may be over $5 million.
"Plaintiff is in communication with numerous others who referred voters to sign the America PAC petition, who are likewise frustrated that they did not receive full payments for their referrals," the lawsuit says.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
America PAC spokesman Andrew Romeo told BI in a statement that the super PAC "is committed to paying for every legitimate petition signature, which is evidenced by the fact that we have paid tens of millions of dollars to canvassers for their hard work in support of our mission."
"While we don't yet know who this 'John Doe' plaintiff is and can't speak to their specific circumstances, we can say that we are also committed to rooting out fraud and have the right to withhold payments to fraudsters," Romeo said.
During the 2024 campaign, Musk also launched a $1 million-a-day giveaway to encourage voter registration and push swing-state residents to the polls. The move raised legal questions.
At the time, the Department of Justice sent Musk a letter warning that the contest could violate federal law and the Philadelphia District Attorney filed a lawsuit, calling the petition an "unlawful lottery."
A Philadelphia judge ultimately allowed the program to move forward, saying it did not meet the criteria for a lottery.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, ahead of a high-stakes Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, Musk doled out $1 million checks to two voters who had signed his super PAC's petition against "activist judges."
