Virtual Musk at G20 business meet

The world’s richest man is preoccupied with a court case about his fat paycheck

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) — Elon Musk, the billionaire new owner of Twitter, will not go to Indonesia for a business gathering on the sidelines of the G20 summit, but will instead attend virtually, a senior Indonesian official said Sunday.

Musk, who also owns electric car maker Tesla, was due to speak at the so-called B20 business conference on the resort island of Bali but a court case over his 2018 pay package worth about $56 billion in stock options is slated to begin next week.

“In regards with Elon Musk, he has a trial. He must be present at the court,” Indonesia’s coordinating minister of maritime and investment affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told reporters at the business conference on the eve of the G20 leaders’ summit starting on Tuesday.

His office said the world’s richest person would instead take part in an hour-long virtual discussion on “future disruption of global technological innovation” at the B20 on Monday with Indonesian tycoon Anindya Bakrie.

The B20 lists Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as attendees.

Pandjaitan said Musk would visit Jakarta in December “after his issue at the court finishes.”

The colossal pay packet being challenged in a Delaware court by a Tesla shareholder was approved by the company’s shareholders at the time.

But the plaintiff argued Musk as majority shareholder presided over a conflicted transaction approved by a board controlled by him and that it should be rescinded.

@GOLLYITSMOLLIE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE SMOKE rises from the crash after two planes collided mid-air during the Wings Over Dallas Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport, in Dallas, Texas. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the two World War II-era airplanes, nor was it clear whether anyone survived the early afternoon crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said.