A judge in the US state of Delaware has given the head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla, Elon Musk (53), and Tesla paved the way for an appeal in the dispute over the $56 billion compensation package.
Judge Kathaleen McCormick (45) decided at the beginning of December, that Musk is not entitled to the money, even though the electric car manufacturer’s shareholders voted for it again last June. The bonuses for certain goals were originally set in 2018. In January, the chairwoman of the Court of Chancery in the US state of Delaware spoke of an “unbelievable sum” and decided that the planned compensation was excessive. According to court documents, Tesla had requested that the judge recognize shareholders’ vote in June in favor of Musk’s pay package.
Tesla may also appeal McCormick’s order ordering the company to pay $345 million to lawyers for Richard Tornetta, the shareholder who sued over the compensation package in 2018. The Delaware Supreme Court may take about a year to reach a decision.
Regardless of the dispute over the billion-dollar compensation package, Musk’s fortune, who also runs the space company Space X, has recently increased to more than $400 billion. An important reason is that Tesla shares have risen since the election victory Donald Trump increased massively.