After promise, Elon Musk sells USD 1.1B in Tesla shares to pay taxes
Detroit(AP): After making a promise on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold about 9,00,000 shares of the electric car maker's stock, netting over USD 1.1 billion that will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options.
The sales, disclosed in two regulatory filings late Wednesday, will cover tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. He exercised options to buy just over 2.1 million shares for USD 6.24 each. The company's stock closed Wednesday at USD 1,067.95 per share.
The transactions were "automatically effected" as part of a trading plan adopted on September 14 to sell options that expire next year, according to forms filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That was nearly two months before he floated the idea of the sale on Twitter.
After the transactions, Musk still owns about 170 million Tesla shares.
Musk was Tesla's largest shareholder as of June, owning about 17 per cent of the company, according to data provider FactSet. He's the wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of around USD 282 billion, most of it in Tesla stock.
Ives calculated that Musk has about USD 10 billion in taxes coming due on stock options that vest next summer.
The sometimes abrasive and unpredictable Musk said he proposed selling the stock as some Democrats have been pushing for billionaires to pay taxes when the price of the stocks they hold goes up, even if they don't sell any shares. However, the wording on unrealised gains, also called a "billionaires tax," was removed from President Joe Biden's budget, which is still being negotiated.
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," he tweeted Saturday afternoon. "Do you support this?"
Musk said he would abide by the results of the poll, which ended with 58 per cent of more than 3.5 million votes calling for him to sell the stock.
Tesla does not pay Musk a cash salary. "I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock," Musk tweeted.
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'Engineered narratives': West Bengal guv on alleged molestation charges against him
Kolkata, May 2: West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Thursday said he will not be cowed down by “engineered narratives” and the "truth shall triumph” after TMC leaders claimed that a woman working at Raj Bhavan levelled allegations of molestation against him.
In a statement, the Governor said, “Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal,”
To the Raj Bhavan staff "who expressed solidarity with him following some derogatory narratives that were circulated by two disgruntled employees as agents of political parties," a communication by Raj Bhawan said.
The Governor’s statement came after senior TMC leaders claimed this evening in a series of social media posts that the woman, who had levelled the allegations, has been taken to a police station to complain against Bose.
Though police sources said they received a verbal complaint, there was no official word on whether a formal complaint had been registered.
“BIG. Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose was accused of molesting a woman. How utterly appalling and Horrifying. Ahead of @narendramodi visit to Kolkata who is supposed to stay overnight at Raj Bhavan, a woman has alleged that she was molested while she went to meet the Governor at Raj Bhavan today. The complainant has been taken to the Hare Street police station for filing a complaint. The woman has accused the Governor of molesting her. Shocking and disgraceful,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said in a post on X.
Fellow TMC MP Saket Gokhale also posted on his X account regarding the issue.
West Bengal Women and Child Development Minister Shashi Panja said it is “shameful” that the Governor has maligned his post and has used it to “torture a woman”.
“It is appalling and shocking to see such an incident. This is the same Governor who had reached out to Sandeshkhali to talk about women’s rights and Nari Shakti. This is shameful that the Governor sought undue advantages in the pretext of giving her a permanent job. We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will be addressing rallies in Bengal tomorrow to react on this issue,” she said.
According to sources in the Governor's House, the "woman employee with the help of her alleged boyfriend who is also an employee of the Raj Bhavan was blocking complaints (from people) being sent to the Election Commission of India.
"When she was reprimanded for that, she went outside and alleged molestation. She is in the habit of throwing tantrums against her colleagues because of some disease," a Raj Bhavan official said.
The West Bengal Governor and the TMC government have shared an acrimonious relationship since he assumed office in November 2022 and had several run-ins on various issues.
The BJP said it has to be seen whether this a “conspiracy by the TMC” or has an “iota of truth in it”.
“We all know that the TMC is politically cornered on the issue of SSC scam and is looking for a breathing space. So this needs to be seen whether this is a conspiracy by the TMC or it has any iota of truth in it,” BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said.
BIG. Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose accused of molesting a woman. How utterly APPALLING and HORRIFYING. Ahead of @narendramodi visit to Kolkata who is supposed to stay overnight at Raj Bhavan, a woman has alleged that she was molested while she went to meet the Governor at Raj…
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) May 2, 2024
Shameful that a constitutional office holder should try to prejudice an impartial investigation by attacking the motive of the complainant. We have seen this happen in that infamous Saturday Hearing of the Supreme Court. Respect women! https://t.co/E6eJLQvFXO
— sanjoy ghose (@advsanjoy) May 2, 2024
