The reason the compensation package was questioned (and ultimately disallowed) was because Elmo, as CEO, wasn’t supposed to be powerful enough to essentially dictate his own pay to a noninally independent board of directors, whose primary constituency was supposed to be the shareholders.
Instead, he had enough pull to essentially get the board to rubberstamp an absurdly over-the-top compensation plan full of bogus bonus goals which all boiled down to just doing his job and growing the company as it would have anyway without his help.
The testimony was an attempt to claim that the board was independent enough to negotiate with him in good faith, rather than having their lips attached to his derriere.
That’s exactly it. Which is why it’s so wildly entertaining to watch him backpedal from everything, including his goodfriends.
Q. And during that period, when the grant was under discussion, you and Mr. Gracias socialized together. Correct?
A. Yes. I should say there wasn’t much socialization. There was not — I was working almost all the time, so not a lot of socialization or nonwork happening, at all.
Q. Well, you know I’ve got another set of interrogatories for you. Let’s take a look at the second-to-last exhibit in your book. It’s JX 1260. This is your responses and objections to the second set of interrogatories. And I want to draw your attention, if I can, to page 005. And you submitted this under oath as testimony for the Court. Correct?
A. Yes.
Q. So drawing your attention towards the bottom of 005, there is a bullet point that says, “During the relevant period, Mr. Musk and Mr. Gracias were friends and they socialized together.” You gave that testimony in this Court under oath. Correct?
A. Yes. I’m just saying that in terms of — there was just not a lot of socialization, if that’s a word applicable in the circumstance.
Q. You’re arguing about quantum rather than existence. Right?
A. Just saying that nonwork time was very, very limited.
Q. Well, that nonwork time included vacationing with Mr. Gracias and your respective families. Correct?
A. I mean, for a few days.
Q. Yep. And your vacations included vacations outside the United States. Right?
A. There was one.
Q. And you’ve attended each other’s family birthday — each other’s family’s birthday parties. Correct?
Q. You were asked some questions by Mr. Chesler about the 10 percent fully diluted, not fully diluted, so forth and so on. To the extent there was any negotiation at all about the quantum of shares that you received, you were effectively negotiating against yourself. Isn’t that right, sir?
A. No.
Q. Let me show you a clip from your deposition. Counsel, this is 263, lines 2 through 4.
(A video clip was played as follows:)
Q: So that was your proposal on December 1?
A: That was — that was, I guess, me negotiating against myself, yes.
Q. I asked you that question and you gave that answer. Is that right, sir?
A. I guess I did give that answer.
Q. You were asked that question and gave that answer?
My WAG - he was trying to present himself as being a Super Big Business Boy who’s spending all his time and effort on Tesla instead of being distracted by petty concerns like his space company and his social media company and his brain implant company and his AI company and his tunnel company and his McDonald’s franchise*, which is why he deserves all that money.
(*I don’t know if Elmo actually owns a McDonald’s franchise but if the King of England can own one than so can Elmo)
I mean, in all seriousness, the lawyer was going to go with the deposition, which put Musk firmly in control of the company…no reason to undermine that with an open question.
I think it’s pretty clear the lawyer was saying that, at least the jury should easily conclude that on their own. You can’t say two completely contradictory things and tell the truth both times.
I guess this is why good lawyers are worth so much money.
This reminds me of Sydney Powell’s complaints that she had been “extorted” into agreeing to a plea deal in the Georgia case. Isn’t that the whole point of plea deals, you plea guilty because if you don’t bad things will happen to you.