Elon Musk: Ten lesser known facts about the TESLA CEO and tech billionaire

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chairman and CEO has fallen in yet another controversy. He has reportedly agreed to pay a total of US dollar 40 million and make a series of concessions to settle a government lawsuit alleging Musk duped investors with misleading statements about a proposed buyout of the company. Musk will give up his chairmanship for at least three years. Musk, a billionaire, and Tesla, a company that ended June with US dollar 2.2 billion in cash, each are paying USD 20 million to resolve the case.

ALSO READ | Mangalyaan: Ten facts about India's first Mars orbiter mission

He accepted the deal with the SEC "without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint," according to a court document.

"The $40 million in penalties will be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process," the SEC said in a press release.

Elon Musk: Ten lesser known facts about the TESLA CEO and tech billionaire

1. Elon is a South African by birth, he moved to Canada and the United States for college and became an American citizen at the age of 31.
2. In 1984, 12-year-old Musk published the source code for his video game Blastar in PC and Office Technology magazine, under the name E. R. Musk. He received US dollar 500 for his efforts.
3. During college, he ran a nightclub out of his house in order to pay the rent.
4. Musk quit his Ph.D. after two days at Stanford University in order to start Zip2, an online city directory.
5. In early 2000’s his main focus was to work on online money transfer website ‘Paypal’.
6. In September 2000, he gets ousted as CEO from ‘Paypal’ while he is on honeymoon. He almost died of malaria in this vacation.
7. Musk has an appearance in an episode of the sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’.
8. In 2001, Musk planned to grow plants on Mars. He later announced his “Mars Oasis” project.
9. Elon Musk is a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan, his Falcon rockets are named after the movie franchise’s Millennium Falcon.
10. He is famously obsessed with colonising Mars, reportedly hoping to send 80,000 people to the planet for US dollar 500,000 per trip.

ALSO READ | Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft captures images of asteroid Ryugu