Invitations to your house, unsolicited attention, insinuations. Elon Muskthe billionaire CEO of SpaceX and teslafaces accusations of inappropriate behavior with former employees, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal published this Wednesday.
The article details the assumptions Musk’s meetings with several women who worked for him or his company of SpaceX rockets. Relationships often ended with the women being fired followed by lucrative severance packages. The American newspaper’s investigation is based on conversations with about 50 people, including former employees, people close to Musk, friends and family of the women involved. Emails, messages and other documents from the women’s lawyers, reviewed by the Journal.
One of the cases involves a engineer who had a relationship with Musk during her internship at SpaceX, when she was still in college. According to what the former employee told her friends, her initial closeness with Musk during the internship, when she proposed ideas to improve SpaceX, It led to a date that led them to kiss and even have sexual relations. A year after finishing the internship, the billionaire, 20 years older than her, invited the recent graduate to a tourist resort in Sicily, before both ended that relationship, according to documents reviewed by the WSJ. At the time, Musk was married to the actress Talulah Riley. She divorced in 2016.
Despite the breakup, Musk tried to resume his relationship with the former employee when he hired her in 2017 to a position on his executive staff. Musk invited her to have a few drinks with her and made a pass at her, touching her breast. One of the woman’s friends said she remembered Musk saying: “Oh, I’m so bad. “I shouldn’t do this.”
The woman rejected Musk’s proposal to resume the relationship, although she accepted the job, according to the WSJ. Former employees told the newspaper that, although she was a talented engineer, It seemed strange to them that someone so young would be given such a high-level position. so close to the boss.
Afterwards, the two remained close as she tried to establish herself in her new position at SpaceX. Musk frequently sent her text messages inviting her to his Los Angeles mansion for the night, invitations that she sometimes accepted from him but that made her feel uncomfortable at her job, her friends told The Associated Press. Journal.
Over time, she stopped being an executive and became dependent on another engineer. She left SpaceX in 2019 after an executive she reported to was included in a mass layoff, she said in one of the affidavits.
In sworn statements provided by her lawyers, who also represent Musk, the former employee confirmed having had a romantic relationship with Musk in the pastbut denied there was a “romantic relationship” during his employment at SpaceX from 2017 to 2019.
“Nothing Elon Musk did toward me during any of my periods of employment at SpaceX was predatory or unlawful in any way.”the woman said according to the Journal.
In one of the sworn statements, the woman stated that on the few occasions she went to Musk’s house, they watched television and talked about the production ramp of the Tesla Model 3 and the “technical future of humanity.”
The article, citing anonymous sources, also details other alleged cases of misconduct by Musk towards other former employees.
A SpaceX flight attendant alleged that in 2016 Musk showed her his erect penis and offered her a horse in exchange for sexual acts while she gave him a massage during a flight, according to people familiar with the allegations. SpaceX reduced her shifts after she rejected his advances, the woman alleged. The company later agreed to pay him $250,000. Musk called the flight attendant’s accusations “totally false.” On social media, he joked that the scandal should be called “Elongate” and denied using a flight attendant on her plane.
Another former employee who left SpaceX in 2013 alleged that Musk “had asked her on multiple occasions to have his babies” during his exit negotiations. Musk, who has at least 10 children, said the world is facing an underpopulation crisis and that people with high IQs should procreate.
But SpaceX woman declined Musk’s offer. She had continued working for Musk after he asked her to have her children, but her relationship deteriorated. In addition to the baby allegations, Musk had denied the woman a raise and complained about her performance, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman received a cash exit package and shares valued at more than a million dollarsaccording to a person familiar with the agreement.
In 2021, Musk had twins with Shivon Zilis (she also told it in her biography published in September 2023), an executive at the brain implant company Neuralinkalso owned by the billionaire.
A fourth woman kept a month-long sexual relationship with Musk in 2014 while working directly for himwhich led to “text and email recriminations” when he left the company.
As tensions rose, Musk assigned Sam Teller, his chief of staff, to handle the woman’s departure, according to people familiar with the matter and emails the woman shared with others. Musk refused to pay the woman directly in Tesla stock. In an email dated December 29, 2014, Teller offered $35,400 in cash for his unpaid work, saying he could use it to buy the shares instead. She negotiated the offer until $85,000citing taxes and his extensive report for the billionaire.
To get the money, he had to sign a agreement that required her to release Musk from possible legal claims “known and unknown” and to keep information about him “in the strictest confidentiality,” including the document itself. He shared the agreement with people around him before signing it.
He Journal cited former and fired SpaceX employees who complained about what they describe as a culture of sexism and harassment around the founder, who can act with impunity.
“Elon is SpaceX, and SpaceX is Elon”a former engineer recalled an executive saying in a meeting following the layoffs of some employees critical of Musk.
However, Gwynne Shotwellpresident of SpaceX, rejected the accusations described in the article as “falsehoods” and “a completely misleading narrative” that does not reflect the company’s culture.
“I continue to be amazed by what this extraordinary group of people accomplishes every day, even in the midst of all the forces working against us. And Elon is one of the best human beings I know.”Shotwell said Journal.
SpaceX, he added, thoroughly investigates all complaints of harassment and takes appropriate action in cases.
Musk did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment. Alex Spiroone of his lawyers, had previously dismissed reports of Musk’s drug use by saying that “he is regularly and randomly subject to drug testing at SpaceX and has never failed a test.”
The stories told by WSJ did not lead to formal complaints (although the one from the stewardess was made public by Business Insider in 2022), but since 2017 the conduct of managers in the workplace has come under increased scrutiny, thanks in part to the emergence of the #MeToo.
Outright prohibitions on sexual relations between “bosses” and employees, for fear that they could create power imbalances and conflicts of interest, for example, are already part of American business culture, just as there are federal and state laws that They prevent managers from sexually harassing employees.
Some courts have also recognized the “sexual favoritism” as a form of harassment, considering complaints filed by workers who alleged preferential treatment by colleagues with whom they had consensual relationships. AND SpaceX itself formally discourages internal relationships between employees.
