According to documents filed in court in the state where Tesla is legally registered, the three law firms requested that their justice fees in the case won late last January be paid to them in shares of the car maker, a particularly rare request.
The companies are requesting, on the one hand, reimbursement of expenses incurred, which they estimate at $1.12 million, and on the other hand, the transfer of 29.4 million shares of Tesla, which were listed at $202.64 per share at Wall Street’s close on Friday. .
The total value of the shares thus claimed reached $5.96 billion at Friday’s price. As of the date of the Delaware court’s decision in late January, they were worth $5.6 billion. This would represent slightly less than 1% of Tesla’s total capital, but would put the companies together among the group’s ten largest shareholders.
“We know that the motion is unprecedented in terms of its importance,” the petitioners admit in documents sent to the Delaware court, but this situation is mainly due to the fact, according to them, that “(their) efforts produced an enormous. Profit in favor of the company.”
“false” and “misleading” information
Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire entrepreneur, was forced to return a total of $56 billion in Tesla shares after his compensation plan was overturned by Judge Kathleen McCormick, following legal action led by Richard Tornetta, one of Tesla’s shareholders. who considered this remuneration excessive.
Therefore, “the size of the requested award is significant because the value of the profits made by Tesla as a result of plaintiff’s counsel action was enormous,” the shareholder’s attorneys insist. When contacted, these law firms and Tesla did not immediately respond.
Judge McCormick considered that shareholders received “erroneous” and “misleading” information about the board of directors and the remuneration committee during the general meeting that approved Elon Musk’s compensation plan.
