A US court has declared Tesla boss Elon Musk’s billion-dollar salary package at the electric car pioneer invalid. “The verdict is in favor of the plaintiff,” Judge Kathaleen McCormick said Tuesday in the state of Delaware.
McCormick proved a Tesla investor right. Musk and Tesla had failed to demonstrate that the compensation agreed in 2018 – a share package now worth an estimated $56 billion – was “fair”.
Tesla investor Richard Tornetta went to court against Musk, Tesla and several members of Tesla’s board of directors. Tornetta accused the world’s richest man of “unjust enrichment”. At the time, the company boss could impose his conditions on Tesla’s board of directors, which was not sufficiently independent.
“Survival was unlikely”
Musk initially responded to the judge’s ruling with a short sentence on the short-message service X, which he owns: “Never register your company in the state of Delaware.”
The multi-billionaire defended his Tesla salary package during a court hearing in 2022. When the stock package was approved in 2018, investors “thought we were going to fail and go bankrupt,” Musk said. “We were in quite a difficult situation at the time, we lost a lot of money. The chance of survival was extremely low.”
The auto industry has been ridiculing Tesla for a long time, Musk said. “They thought electric vehicles were a joke.” Tesla only achieved its breakthrough with the enormous success of its Model 3. (sda/afp)
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
