Former Dawn Of Correction drummer Richard Tornetta just dealt a pretty beefy blow to Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Tornetta – a shareholder of Tesla with exactly nine shares to his name – originally sued Musk in 2018, seeking to strip him of a $56 billion Tesla Inc. pay package. According to a 2023 report, Tornetta's lawsuit alleged that Musk "dictated the pay package's terms to a board of directors beholden to the billionaire and claims it was then put to a vote of shareholders who were misled about the difficulty of reaching certain targets." Now it's costing him big time.
Reuters now reports that Tornetta won the lawsuit against Musk earlier this week, voiding the massive payday completely. CNBC further reports that Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the parties involved in the lawsuit will now have to confer on how Musk will repay the $56 billion. It's worth noting that the $56 billion payday was the largest compensation plan ever paid in public corporate history.
"Put simply, neither the Compensation Committee nor the Board acted in the best interests of the Company when negotiating Musk's compensation plan. In fact, there is barely any evidence of negotiations at all," wrote McCormick in a portion of her 200-page ruling. "Rather than negotiate against Musk with the mindset of a third party, the Compensation Committee worked alongside him, almost as an advisory body."
And hey, good on Tornetta. Nine shares still constitutes a stake in the company, meaning that the dude had every right to question how someone like Musk would be using his money. As for Dawn Of Correction, maybe it's a good time for a reunion?
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