Elon Musk has admitted to making decisions about Tesla without board approval during testimony in the trial over his $56 billion pay package.
Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta has sued Musk and the board, asserting that the entrepreneur used his dominance over Tesla’s board to dictate terms of the package. Tornetta’s lawyer claims that the pay package was formed around easy-to-achieve targets and did not require Musk to work full-time at Tesla.
During his testimony, Musk revealed that he made decisions about Tesla without board approval, including his move to pause the acceptance of Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns. Musk noted that the Tesla board was also not informed before he told analysts last month that the Tesla board could buy back up to $10 billion of stock.
What’s more, Musk also asserted that he sometimes tweeted about the automaker without clearing the messages with a Tesla lawyer as required by a 2018 settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Musk claimed that he was “entirely focused on the execution of the company” during 2017 and said that he did not dictate the terms of the pay plan. He added that he would not be willing to accept a pay plan that required him to punch a clock or commit certain hours to Tesla, asserting that he “pretty much works all the time,” Auto News reports.
Musk’s legal team claims that the pay package was developed by independent board members with input from large shareholders and outside professionals. It has allowed Musk to buy 1 per cent of Tesla stock at a deep discount each time Tesla hits a performance and/or financial target. The automaker has hit 11 of these 12 targets.
Tornetta has asked the court to rescind the package. His lawyers noted that it was $20 billion larger than the annual gross domestic product of the state of Delaware.
