Delaware judge rejects Elon Musk's bid to get a $56 billion pay package from Tesla

Tesla CEO has lost his bid to get a $56 billion pay package reinstated, according to a recent ruling by a Delaware judge who upheld the original ruling in January, which denied the pay package.

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The ruling came on Monday when Tesla CEO lost his bid to have his 2018 CEO pay package reinstated, which is estimated to be worth approximately $56 billion, making it the largest compensation package of any executive of a publicly traded company. Musk rebukes the ruling by the Delaware judge, writing on X, formerly Twitter, that he plans to appeal the ruling, which he describes as "absolute corruption".

Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick voided the push for the pay package back in January, citing Musk's control over Tesla at the time that enabled him to curate the pay package as he saw fit, and through a process that McCormick stated was "deeply flawed." Following these decisions, Tesla conducted a shareholder vote on the pay package in June, and the results were used by Musk's lawyers to try and convince McCormick to overturn her decision. However, it didn't work. McCormick said, "Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here."

Additionally, McCormick decided on Monday that a $345 million attorney fee award for the lawyers who successfully sued on behalf of Tesla shareholders to stop Musk's push for his 2018 pay package to be reinstated.

"We are pleased with Chancellor McCormick's ruling, which declined Tesla's invitation to inject continued uncertainty into Court proceedings and thank the Chancellor and her staff for their extraordinary hard work in overseeing this complex case," said attorneys from Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann, the firm representing the plaintiff, said in a statement