Musk Settles Indian Defamation Case for $10K

Elon Musk has settled a case against him reneging on his earlier stand when he tweeted, “My commitment: We will never seek victory in a just case against us, even if we will probably win,” he wrote. “We will never surrender/ settle an unjust case against us, even if we will probably lose.”

And lo and behold, he did surrender. Instead of fighting a nearly 3-year-old defamation lawsuit filed by graduate student Randeep Hothi, the owner of Tesla decided to wrap it up by settling for $10,000. Though Musk’s lawyers were ready to settle weeks ago, Hothi accepted only yesterday.

In his case, Hothi had accused Musk of defaming him in an email in which Musk allegedly claimed that Hothi “almost killed’ a Tesla security guard in the parking lot of the company’s factory, though there was no basis for it.

As for Musk, the settlement means parting with 0.000006% of his net worth, which stands at $165 billion. It is not clear if Musk changed his mind and decided that Hothi’s was a just case or if he had other reasons; Musk did step back and opted for a settlement.