SpaceX President Defends Elon Musk Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations

A private flight attendant recently accused the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, of sexual misconduct. While some sided with the victim, a huge number of people also defended the SpaceX owner. However, COO and President of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell also jumped to Musk’s defense.

According to sources, the President emailed employees last week, in which she wrote that she believes the allegations to be false.

Gwynne Shotwell’s Email

“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 wrote in her email.

She also highlighted that she will “never comment” on legal matters involving employment problems and noted that Musk publicly labeled the allegations as ‘utterly untrue.’

The No. 2 at SpaceX and the company’s top female executive noted that the company has a no-tolerance policy for harassment. She added that SpaceX handles every accusation seriously and conducts thorough investigations on the matter, regardless of who may be involved.

While the company has faced a handful of complaints before, Shotwell says that SpaceX has a ‘no assholes’ policy. Previously, an ex-employee named Ashley Kosak revealed in an essay that the company is ‘rampant with sexism,’ and its HR department does not protect victims of harassment.

Accusations against Elon Musk:

Elon himself has also denied the accusations that he allegedly flashed his ‘private parts’ at a flight attendant in 2016. Musk labeled them ‘wild accusations’ and said that there is much more to the story.

The renowned news outlet Business Insider broke the story to the public, reporting that Musk paid $250,000 to the attendant. On the other hand, Elon called the story a ‘politically motivated hit piece.’

Neither Musk nor SpaceX’s Vice President of the legal department Christopher Cardaci denied the payment in their statements to the outlet.

This new allegation against the Tesla owner comes as his company aims to raise $1.7 billion in new funding. This will take the total valuation of SpaceX to $127 billion, making it the United States’ most valuable private company.

Elon Musk Lost $10 Billion

According to an estimation from Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index Musk’s personal wealth of around $10.6 billion has evaporated overnight after the alleged sexual misconduct allegation.

Also on Friday, Tesla’s share price was down by 10.8% but somehow managed to recover by the close of the market at 6.4%, which is roughly $10 billion.