A lawsuit filed by a former thrash metal drummer has caused Elon Musk to lose almost $56 billion.
Richard Tornetta, who played in the Philadelphia band Dawn of Correction between 2005 and 2009, spearheaded the suit against Musk and his electric car company Tesla in 2018.
The lawsuit claimed that Musk was overpaid by his company Tesla in 2018.
The drummer, who only held nine shares of Tesla stock at the time, alleged that the company's executives shouldn't have awarded Musk the enormous $55.8 billion stock-based compensation package he received that year.
Judge Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware's Court of Chancery agreed with Tornetta and decided to strip Musk of those assets in a ruling on Tuesday, Jan. 30, CNBC reported.
"Put simply, neither the compensation committee nor the board acted in the best interests of the company when negotiating Musk's compensation plan. In fact, there is barely any evidence of negotiations at all," she said.
The judge also noted that the assets Musk received were the largest compensation plan in public corporate history.
The tech mogul will now have an opportunity to appeal via the state's supreme court.
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Many companies incorporate in Delaware due to the state's business-friendly tax laws, but Musk is now having regrets. "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware," he said in a Jan. 30 tweet.
Tornetta's lawyer Greg Varallo celebrated the decision in a statement provided to CNBC.
"We are enormously grateful for the Court’s thorough and extraordinarily well-reasoned decision in turning back the Tesla board’s absurdly outsized pay package for Musk," he said. "The Court’s hard work will redound directly to the benefit of Tesla investors, who will see the dilution from this gargantuan pay package erased."
Tesla's stock price has fallen from $191.59 to $182.73 since the news broke on Jan. 30, but it's still a few cents more valuable than it was on Jan. 25.
A judge in Delaware agreed and stripped Musk of those assets on Jan. 30.
Dawn of Correction broke up in 2009. The band released an EP called Swingin' the Chain in 2007 and its full-length studio album Dead Hand Control the following year.
The band's music never made it on to Spotify, but a few live performances are available to stream on YouTube. The band played at CBGB in New York City sometime before the venue closed in 2006.
Before filing the lawsuit, Tornetta was a pro audio enthusiast who often posted pictures about his auto projects on Instagram.
"I build things and void most warranties," his bio on the account says.
But it looks like Tornetta stopped posting before filing the lawsuit in 2018. His last update came in October 2017.
Musk was in a relationship with the pop star Grimes between 2018 and 2021. They have three children together.
The drummer isn't Musk's only connection to the music world. He married the Canadian pop musician Grimes in 2018. The couple divorced in 2021 after having three children together.
Later that year, Grimes released a song called "Love" about the intense scrutiny she received from the press during and after their relationship.
Musk bought X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in 2022. He decided to rebrand the social media company in July 2023.
