Elon Musk's wealth dropped $10 billion in a day after ex-SpaceX employee's allegations

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost around $10 billion in a day after reports of his sexually inappropriate behaviour towards her former employee emerged. Recently, a former SpaceX flight attendant accused Musk claiming that he "exposed" himself while receiving a massage and offered to buy her a horse if she agreed to "do more". She even alleged that the billionaire paid $2,50,000 to sweep the matter under the carpet. Following the explosive revelation, Musk's net worth reportedly tanked by a whopping $10 billion owing to a drop in share prices of his electric car maker Tesla. 

Tesla's share price had reportedly dropped as much as 10.8% last Friday causing Musk's wealth to drop from $212 billion to approximately $202 billion in just a day. According to Forbes real-time data, his total valuation stands at $209 billion as of May 24 after the share price of his car maker recovered. This comes after almost $12 billion were wiped out from Musk's wealth owing to his statements on politics and the latest S&P ESG 500 index. 

As for the allegations against Musk, he dismissed them as “utterly untrue” and joked about using the word "Elongate" in the wake of the alleged scandal. In one of his tweets, he also addressed the allegations saying, "I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me 'exposed' - describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, ...) that isn't known by the public. She won't be able to do so, because it never happened". 

SpaceX President defends Musk

In a recent interview with CNBC, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell defended Musk and called these accusations false. While she refused to comment on the claims of paying the aforementioned amount to settle the issue, Shotwell said that she had known Musk for two decades and never came across any such incident. "Personally, I believe the allegations to be false. Not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations", she told CNBC.