Drugs, sex and prizes: this is how the WSJ describes the parties of Musk and his managers

Elon Musk and some of his executives at Tesla used to make disproportionate use of drugs, LSD, ecstasy and cocaine in particular, spending millions of dollars on trips and private parties. This was revealed in a new episode of an investigation by Wall Street Journal which this time highlights a climate of “subservience” around the richest man in the world on the part of managers terrified of losing their billions in compensation.

It all stems from a 2017 case involving one of the company's most important managers, venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, who resigned after a sex and drug scandal. According to the prestigious financial newspaper Jurvetson he had a party buddy, Musk, who protected him by first having him take a “leave of absence” from the board of directors and then placing him in the management of SpaceX. Not only that, the Wall Street Journal indicates that there are “many” executives and heads of the billionaire's companies who have deep personal and financial ties and have profited enormously from that relationship.

As proof of this, the recent ruling of a Delaware court is cited which annulled a remuneration plan granted by the board of directors in 2018 to CEO Musk, for a value now estimated at 56 billion dollars. The judge ruled in favor of some shareholders, who had sued claiming that the decision to grant that astronomical package of stock options to the billionaire lacked transparency and motivation and that Musk himself would have dictated the terms of his compensation to a board of directors “of part”.

Tesla pays its directors mostly in stock options, and the current board of directors, excluding Musk, have collectively earned more than $650 million from stock sales. Some executives have agreed to return some of that compensation to Tesla to settle a shareholder lawsuit denying any wrongdoing but the deal still needs to be approved by a judge.

Now according to WSJ sources, many current and former directors of Tesla and SpaceX are aware of Musk's drug use but have not taken any public action.

And some of them participated in the parties but for fear of losing the billions in compensation they would never betray their boss. In recent years the entrepreneur has participated in a series of parties with Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and member of the Tesla board of directors, during which he took ketamine through a bottle of nasal spray. Other managers attended parties at El Ganzo, a boutique hotel in San José del Cabo, Mexico, known for its art and music scene as well as drug-fueled events. A mix of private life, transgressions and business that is becoming out of control and, from a market point of view, is on the verge of illegality.