Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has been accused of exposing himself to a SpaceX flight attendant, rubbing her leg without consent and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage.
The claims were published by Business Insider on Friday after it obtained “interview and documents” about the alleged 2016 incident.
Without directly commenting on the case, Musk is hinting that it is part of a campaign of “political attacks” carried out by Democrats.
The alleged misconduct dated back to 2016, is coming out now after a friend of the alleged victim detailed the allegations to Insider.
According to the friend, who is named in the report, a woman was reportedly hired as a flight attendant for SpaceX on Musk’s corporate jet and was encouraged by people at SpaceX to become licensed as a certified masseuse on her dime.
On a flight to London in 2016, she alleged that Musk acted inappropriately during a massage. Here’s how Insider reported the incident:
The flight attendant told her friend that the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder asked her to come to his room during a flight in late 2016 “for a full body massage,” the declaration says. When she arrived, the attendant found that Musk “was completely naked except for a sheet covering the lower half of his body.”
During the massage, the declaration said, Musk “exposed his genitals” and then “touched her and offered to buy her a house if she would ‘do more,’ referring to the performance of sex acts.”
After refusing the alleged demand for sexual favours, the flight attendant reportedly told her friend that she started getting booked less often on SpaceX’s jet.
In 2018, the flight attendant hired an employment lawyer and reported the incident to SpaceX.
SpaceX reportedly ended up giving her $250,000 as part of a severance package.
The attendant’s complaint was resolved quickly after a session with a mediator that Musk personally attended. The matter never reached a court of law or an arbitration proceeding.
In November 2018, Musk, SpaceX and the flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims.
She also reportedly signed an NDA, and Insider made it sound like that’s why the story is coming out based on the unnamed friend’s account of what she was told by the flight attendant.
