Perhaps the most ridiculous thing you will hear today is Elon Musk testifying he's low on cash. Does that mean he's broke? Well, no. It's just that most of his billions don't come in banknotes.
If you ask Forbes, the SpaceX and Tesla Inc. CEO has a real-time net worth of $20.7 billion and ranks 23rd in The Forbes 400 Richest Americans. As with most billionaires, Musk owns stocks and bonds, and that's where most of his net worth is tied up. So no, he hasn't gone poor - we just don't know how much hard cash he's kept with him.
That's what Musk testified before a Los Angeles court in hopes of his defamation case be dismissed, which happens to be worth $75,000. The entrepreneur is currently embroiled in a messy lawsuit brought against him by British diver Vernon Unsworth, which the billionaire counteracted by declaring he's "financially illiquid."
Lin Wood, Unsworth's lawyer, revealed Musk's defense in a filing Monday, Bloomberg reports. The CEO's defense team has confirmed Wood's statement as well.
"Mr. Musk clarified that much of his net worth is committed to his companies," said Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Musk. "Of course Mr. Unsworth's lawyers are focused on this, since the entire case is nothing but a money-grab."
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index's analysis of Musk's net worth, meanwhile, puts him at $23.7 billion. His wealth is tied up in stock in both SpaceX and Tesla, which implies that he may not have the money to pay for damages in case the court decides in favor of Unsworth.
In 2018, Musk branded Unsworth a "pedo guy" in front of the entire Twitterverse in the aftermath of the diver's rescue of 12 Thai boys from an underwater cave. The British caver resorted to suing the billionaire for defamation.
Musk had previously offered to design a miniature submarine that might transport the boys through the cave's waterways and to safety. Unsworth slammed the Tesla chief's submarine as a "publicity stunt," to which Musk hit back with a pedo slur.
The businessman eventually deleted his tweet followed by an apology to Unsworth. To his explain his choice of insult, Spiro said in a court filing that the slur was "not an accusation of acts of pedophilia," but was meant to be "synonymous with 'creepy old man'" instead.
Musk's defamation lawsuit will go to trial on Dec. 3 in Los Angeles. The case is Unsworth v. Musk, 18-cv-08048, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).
