Tesla CEO is asked about his worth during his trial

Tesla CEO is asked about his holdings at ‘pedo guy’ trial

Elon Musk may be worth $ 20 billion, but does that mean he has enough cash on him to buy a cup of coffee?

Well, he probably does. But, as the defamation suit brought against the Tesla chief executive by British cave diver Vernon Unsworth, whom Musk called a “pedo guy” on Twitter goes on, the world is getting a little bit of an insight into just how wealthy Musk is.

Unsworth is suing Musk over the “pedo guy” tweet for defamation of character and slander on the grounds that Musk insinuated Unsworth was a pedophile last year. The two got into a war of words on Twitter, and in the media in 2018 when Unsworth ridiculed an offer by Musk to assist in efforts to rescue a boys soccer team that was trapped in an underwater cave in Thailand. Unsworth is seeking $75,000 in damages from Musk.

During testimony in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Unsworth’s lawyer, L. Lin

Wood, asked Musk if he thought his “pedo guy” tweet had an impact on Tesla’s share price. According to CNBC, Musk said he had “received concerned notes from shareholders.” Wood then proceeded to ask Musk about his net worth.

Musk, who owns approximately 20% of Tesla’s outstanding shares, as well as stock in his space- exploration company, SpaceX, said he didn’t know exactly how much he was worth. But, when Wood asked Musk if his worth could be as high as $20 billion, Musk said, “I think SpaceX and Tesla stock probably amount to that.” Musk added that despite his net worth on paper, he doesn’t have much cash on hand.

Earlier this year, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing said that Tesla gave Musk a 2018 compensation package of $2.29 billion, with $2.28 billion of that coming in the form of Tesla stock options. Musk’s compensation was more than $2 billion higher than that of the No. 2 highest- paid CEO of an American company, Discovery network CEO David Zaslav, who received $129.5 million in 2018.