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TechElon Musk

Elon Musk blasts subpoena over his ties to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as ‘idiotic’

Christiaan Hetzner
By
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
Senior Reporter
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Christiaan Hetzner
By
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
Senior Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 16, 2023, 11:50 AM ET
Elon Musk
Musk has long been a vocal critic of remote work. LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk blasted suggestions that a subpoena served to the tycoon would find any material evidence linking him to deceased money manager and known sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

A court order on Monday demanded Musk hand over “all documents reflecting or regarding Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and/or his procurement of girls or women for consensual sex.”

While it did not accuse him of any wrongdoing, the implication he might be in possession of any such records is alone potentially damaging to his reputation. 

The Tesla CEO and Twitter owner called the idea “idiotic on so many levels”, refuting he might have any correspondence relevant to the U.S. Virgin Islands’ lawsuit filed against J.P. Morgan. 

“That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever,” he told his nearly 140 million followers on Twitter on Monday. “The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd.” 

This is idiotic on so many levels:

1. That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever.

2. The notion that I would need or listen to financial advice from a dumb crook is absurd.

3. JPM let Tesla down ten years ago, despite having Tesla’s global commercial banking…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023

After the Wall Street bank “let Tesla down ten years ago”, Musk continued, he had subsequently pulled his global commercial banking business from the lender.

It’s not clear what Musk referred to, but he could mean an ongoing legal dispute over $162 million JP Morgan believes Tesla owes the bank stemming from a 2014 stock warrant sale.

The U.S. Virgin Islands allege J.P. Morgan financially profited from the business opportunities referred to them by Epstein and his co-conspirators on the Little St. James private island he owned “in exchange for its known facilitation of and implicit participation in Epstein’s sex trafficking venture.” 

A controversial moment captured on film

Musk’s ties to Epstein are the subject of repeated aggravation to the driven entrepreneur, whose critics often post a photo of him standing next to chief Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Musk, who has said combatting child exploitation on Twitter is his number one priority, has gone on the record as saying he was photobombed in the picture—the only such photograph portraying the two to come to light. 

Don’t know Ghislaine at all. She photobombed me once at a Vanity Fair party several years ago. Real question is why VF invited her in the first place 🤔

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 3, 2020

The Tesla CEO is by no means the only major tech industry figure to be linked to the sex offender.

Most famously, Bill Gates has come under scrutiny with wife Melinda revealing in March 2022 that one of the reasons behind her divorce from the billionaire Microsoft co-founder was his meetings with Epstein. 

Fortune Brainstorm AI returns to San Francisco Dec. 8–9 to convene the smartest people we know—technologists, entrepreneurs, Fortune Global 500 executives, investors, policymakers, and the brilliant minds in between—to explore and interrogate the most pressing questions about AI at another pivotal moment. Register here.
About the Author
Christiaan Hetzner
By Christiaan HetznerSenior Reporter
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Christiaan Hetzner is a former writer for Fortune, where he covered Europe’s changing business landscape.

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