Source: The Guardian
Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk faced a loss of about $10 billion of his entire worth in one day following reports coming up about him having sexual harassed a flight attendant. On Thursday, May 19, his wealth was around $212 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. However, it dropped to about $201 billion after reports of the allegation started emerging.
Revelations from Monday, May 23, showed that the billionaire CEO is presently worth around $207, still maintaining the position of the world’s richest person. Despite the reports, the Tesla and SpaceX chief has completely denied the allegations that he sexually harassed a flight attendant in 2016. One of the first reports on this revealed how he exposed himself to an attendant on his private aircraft on a flight to London.
In an attempt to address the case outside court, Musk’s SpaceX reportedly paid the flight attendant $250,000 to settle the claim regarding sexual harassment against the Tesla chief executive. The details of the case was revealed by a friend of the alleged victim on the guarantee that her anonymity would be maintained.
Further details and Musk’s response:
The employee reportedly accused Musk of inappropriately exposing himself to her at the time of a massage. Apparently, he rubbed his leg without consent, offering to purchase a horse for her if she would oblige to an erotic massage for him. Musk, however, completely denied these accusations, referring to them as ‘utterly untrue,’ specifying ‘it never happened.’ Moreover, he informed concerned reporters that the piece was a ‘politically motivated’ one, adding they needed to look into ‘more of this story.’
He even took to Twitter addressing these allegations against him, saying the actions against him ‘should be viewed through a political lens- this is their standard (despicable) playbook.’ Additionally, he stated that nothing would stop him from advocating ‘for a good fortune and your right to free speech.’
In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party.
But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.
Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold … 🍿
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2022
“And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue,” he said.
The billionaire CEO went on to specify how he has a ‘challenge to this liar,’ referring to the friend of the alleged victim, claiming that she saw Musk ‘exposed.’ He challenged them to ‘describe just one thing, anything at all’ on his body such as scars or tattoos that the public is not aware of. Moreover, he guaranteed that she would not be able to point any out, as ‘it never happened.’
Currently, Musk is in the process of negotiating a $44 billion deal to acquire social media platform Twitter. Moreover, he announced that the deal was on temporary hold over pending details about spam and bot accounts on the social media platform.