Warren Raps Musk For Using Tesla To Prop Up Twitter's Debts

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) is raising alarm that Elon Musk is shirking legal duties, misappropriating resources, and ignoring conflicts of interest in his ownership of Twitter, telling Tesla’s board chairman that Musk is treating the social media website as a “private plaything,” Sharon Zhang reported for Truthout.

Photo Insert: One issue is Musk’s “misappropriation of Tesla resources,” Warren wrote.

Warren raised concern over the way that Musk has handled his purchase of Twitter and the way he has carried out advertising on the platform — actions that could harm Musk’s Tesla and other companies and are already harming shareholders.

She said there could be a reason to believe that Musk has “failed to meet (the) legal duty” required of company owners to protect all of the businesses that they own.

“One key element of [company officers’ and directors’] duties is that every Board of Directors of a company with multiple shareholders — especially publicly traded companies — is responsible for ensuring that a controlling shareholder (especially one who is also a Chief Executive Officer, or CEO) does not treat the company as a private plaything,” she said.

“That responsibility includes ensuring that Mr. Musk is an effective CEO and that he fulfills his legal obligation to act in the best interests of Tesla and all of its shareholders, not just himself,” she continued.

One issue is Musk’s “misappropriation of Tesla resources,” Warren wrote. That Musk reportedly pulled more than 50 employees from Tesla to work on Twitter “raises obvious questions about whether Mr. Musk is appropriating resources from a publicly traded firm, Tesla, to benefit his own private company, Twitter,” she said.

It also raises labor concerns — of which there are many regarding both Tesla and Twitter — about whether those employees have been sufficiently compensated for their extra work.

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