2024-03-02 11:07:58
The lawyers who successfully challenged Tesla boss Elon Musk’s $56 billion (52 billion euros) remuneration are charging the US car company $6 billion for it.
The fee corresponds to an hourly rate of $288,888 and should be paid in the form of Tesla shares, the three law firms explained in a written submission to the chancery court in Delaware that became known yesterday (local time). “We are aware that the fee demanded is unprecedented in its absolute amount.” Musk described the demand on X (Twitter) as “criminal”.
At the end of January, a judge in the US state of Delaware described Musk’s compensation package as an “unbelievable sum” and declared it invalid. The $56 billion compensation consisted of stock options that allowed Musk to buy Tesla shares at a greatly reduced price. Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued once morest this.
New record
According to Tornetta’s lawyers, Tesla should now pay for her fee. The company might cover the fees since it benefited from the return of Musk’s salary package. “This structure has the advantage that the compensation is directly linked to the benefits created and not even a cent is taken from Tesla’s balance sheet to pay fees,” the lawyers wrote. Tesla can also deduct their fees from taxes.
The shareholder’s legal team consists of three law firms: Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Friedman Oster & Tejtel, both based in New York, and Andrews & Springer of Wilmington. They have catapulted themselves to the top of the fee demands in shareholder lawsuits in the USA. The highest fee so far was the $688 million demanded in 2008 for the legal team that secured a $7.2 billion settlement following the accounting fraud scandal at the energy company Enron.
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