Category: Delaware

Delaware Confiscates $100 Billion of Musk’s Wealth

elon musk gestures while speaking
Elon Musk (Getty Images)

By Newsmax Wires    |   Monday, 02 December 2024 10:42 PM EST

A Delaware judge moved Monday to confirm its confiscation of Elon Musk's wealth that he created at Tesla — denying him a compensation package that would be worth over $100 billion in value today.

Musk has paid a heavy price for countering woke politics, making X a neutral platform, and backing Donald Trump for president.

Delaware Chancellor Judge Kathaleen McCormick on Monday ruled to confirm her January ruling that found Musk was not eligible for a 2018 compensation package then valued at $56 billion.

McCormick complained the Tesla package for Musk was the "biggest compensation plan ever — an unfathomable sum."

After McCormick had initially ruled that Musk had not gotten proper approval from Tesla shareholders, Musk filed suit.

Musk said he properly received board approval and later hit financial targets to earn the compensation, including benchmarks based on stock value, profitability, and revenue.

At one point, visionary Musk had driven the value of Tesla to close a trillion dollars during the compensation period. Today, Tesla holds a market cap of over $1.1 trillion.

After the judge's January 2024 ruling, Tesla went back to its shareholders to approve the Musk compensation plan.

In June, Tesla shareholders again approved the original $56 billion compensation overwhelmingly — with 77% of stock owners backing Musk and the package.

After the shareholder vote, Tesla went back to the Delaware court to seek its approval, only to find its compensation plan rebuffed again.

"Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here," McCormick said in her opinion Monday.

"Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable," she wrote.

McCormick saw little contradiction, however, in penalizing Musk for the wealth he created, while granting the lawyers who sued him on behalf of shareholders an incredible $345 million in attorney fees for their legal filings.

Musk was not happy by today's ruling and took to X writing, "Shareholders should control company votes, not judges."

Musk reposted other X posts critical of the ruling.

One repost stated: "Things to do in Delaware: 1) Leave."

Musk also reported fund manager Cathie Wood's X post where she called McCormick an "activist judge at its worst."

Wood continued: "No judge has the right to determine CEO compensation. Shareholders voted twice, overwhelming each time, to ratify @elonmusk's 2018 performance-based pay package."

Since the court's first ruling, Musk has been on the warpath with Delaware.

This year he moved both Tesla and SpaceX's incorporation from Delaware to Texas. He also moved Neuralink to Nevada.

Musk has also urged other companies to quit Delaware as well.

On X, Musk has stated bluntly, "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware."

The home state of President Joe Biden, Delaware has come under criticism for its close ties to the Biden family and its political agenda.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal published an article, co-authored by former Attorney General William Barr, lambasting Delaware for embracing far-left Environmental, Social, and Governance policies and attempting to push them on corporations.

And The Hill reported that major corporations are fleeing Delaware as a result of its highly politicized agenda.

Data suggests Delaware is seeing a drop-off of new incorporations. In 2022, the last year the state released data, Delaware saw a 6% fall in new incorporations.

Nancy Mace vs Sarah McBride (male to female transgender Delawarean Rep.-elect): GOP lawmaker proposes ban on transgenders using DC female restrooms

South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a measure Monday that would ban transgender women from using women's bathrooms and other facilities, like locker rooms, on Capitol Hill. The proposed legislation comes as the U.S. House is set to swear in the first openly transgender member of Congress, Delaware Rep.-elect Sarah McBride.

Legislation allowing doctor-assisted suicide narrowly clears Delaware House, heads to state Senate

A bill allowing doctor-assisted suicide in Delaware has narrowly cleared the Democrat-led House and now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

DOVER, Del. -- A bill allowing doctor-assisted suicide in Delaware narrowly cleared the Democrat-led House on Thursday and now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

The bill is the latest iteration of legislation that has been repeatedly introduced by Newark Democrat Paul Baumbach since 2015, and it is the only proposal to make it to a floor vote. After lengthy debate, lawmakers voted 21-16 for the measure, which needed at least 21 affirmative votes for passage.

Among those voting for the bill was Republican Rep. Kevin Hensley of Townsend, who voted against the proposal in previous legislative sessions.

“I did not get confused,” Hensley assured fellow lawmakers after the vote. Hensley said his perspective on the issue changed after his mother, who lives in California, opted for physician-assisted suicide a year ago.

“This was probably one of the toughest votes I’ve ever had to make,” said Hensley, the only GOP lawmaker to vote for the bill.

California is one of 10 states, along with the District of Columbia, that have laws legalizing medically assisted suicide.

Several Republican lawmakers expressed ethical concerns about the Delaware legislation. They also questioned the need for it, given advances in hospice and palliative care in recent years.

Baumbach said the measures are not intended to replace palliative or hospice care, but to complement them. Data from other states indicate that hospice care is involved in the vast majority of cases involving doctor-assisted suicide, he added.

Baumbach said the “end-of-life option” offered in the bill gives terminally ill individuals certainty that they can choose to end their pain if it becomes greater than what hospice or palliative care can alleviate.

“This puts the choice in the dying person’s hands to determine whether or not they wish to self-administer the medicine,” he said.

The legislation allows an adult resident of Delaware who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is expected to die within six months to request lethal prescription drugs from a doctor or advanced practice registered nurse who has primary responsibility for the terminal illness. A consulting physician or nurse would have to confirm the diagnosis and prognosis of the patient, who must have “decision-making capacity.”

The patient would have to be evaluated by a psychiatrist or a psychologist if any of the medical professionals involved are concerned that he or she lacks decision-making capacity. A person also would not qualify for doctor-assisted suicide solely because of age or disability.

The patient would have to make two oral requests for a lethal prescription, followed by a written request, and would have to wait at least 15 days after the initial request before receiving the drugs. The attending doctor or nurse would have to wait at least 48 hours after the written request, which must be signed by two witnesses before prescribing the drugs.

The bill states that any provision in a contract, will, or any other agreement that would affect whether an individual could make or rescind a request for lethal prescription “is not valid.” It also states that requesting, prescribing or dispensing the lethal medication “does not, for any purpose, constitute elder abuse, suicide, assisted-suicide, homicide, or euthanasia.”

The legislation goes further to assert that the act of killing oneself with self-administered prescription medication does not invalidate any part of an insurance policy or annuity.