London Defender

The Daily Mirror of the Great Britain

‘I will abide by the result!’ Elon Musk sells £3.7bn worth of Tesla shares after poll

Two separate regulatory filings revealed Elon Musk, 50, sold stock worth £3.7billion. The money generated from the sales of around 3.6million and 934,000 shares is said to cover tax obligations for stock options granted to Mr Musk in September.

The sales come after the South African-born entrepreneur asked his 63.2million followers on Twitter whether he should sell off 10 percent of Tesla stock after much had been made of “unrealised gains being a means of tax avoidance”.

Around 3.5million Twitter users responded to Mr Musk’s poll.

Users opted for Mr Musk to sell-off 10 percent of his shares by a considerable margin – 57.9 percent to 42.1percent.

Despite his shares sale, Musk still owns around 170million shares in the electric carmaker company.

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Sky News pointed out the sale followed on from reports Democrat senators on Capitol Hill had proposed introducing a tax on billionaires’ stock and other tradable assets.

They also hope to end a loophole that has enabled billionaires to defer capital gains tax.

Underneath his Twitter poll, the SpaceX founder added: “I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”

Musk, who tops Forbes’ real-time billionaire rich list, went on to highlight he is not paid in cash by Tesla.

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However, the company’s shares have rebounded slightly since.

Sky News claims stock has risen by 4.3 percent but remains down 12.6 percent for the week.