Elon Musk denies reports of paying $250K to settle sexual harassment case

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on Thursday, denounced as “utterly untrue” the claims that he had sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016. Previously, a report published by Business Insider claimed that the tech billionaire had paid US $250,000 to an anonymous flight attendant after she accused Musk of exposing himself to her. The report was based on a statement by the friend of the attendant who was part of the settlement.

"I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me 'exposed' - describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, ...) that isn't known by the public. She won't be able to do so, because it never happened," Musk said in an online statement. 

Musk reportedly offered to buy her a house if she agreed to 'do more'

According to the report, Musk had not only exposed himself to the stewardess but also rubbed her thigh. Furthermore, he had reportedly offered to buy her a house if she agreed to  “do more” during the in-flight massage. However, she refused and instead sued Musk in 2018, asserting that her refusal would hurt her prospects to find a job at Musk owned SpaceX. However, the space company made an ‘out of court settlement’ and included a nondisclosure agreement which prevented the flight attendant from speaking about it.

The tech billionaire and the crypto connoisseur have been in the headlines for quite some time now, thanks to his attempts to buy a 100% stake in Twitter. Musk, on Friday, said that ‘Tesla is on his mind 24/7’. The entrepreneur who recently announced his move to buy out microblogging giant Twitter said that he was not distracted by the deal. Meanwhile, he also took on the ‘attacks’ against him amid the 'free speech' battle over Twitter. 

The Tesla CEO on Thursday slammed the ‘attacks’ against him and said that he focussed on his path of providing “free speech” as he had promised during the Twitter deal. “The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech,” he said in a tweet. 

(Image: AP/Unsplash)