It’s powerful to maintain observe of all of the methods during which billionaire Elon Musk has enriched himself together with your tax {dollars}. However that windfall seemingly wasn’t sufficient for Musk, whose brain-chip firm Neuralink reportedly lied on federal varieties, falsely calling itself a “small disadvantaged business.”
The outlet Musk Watch unearthed the submitting, dated April 24, which was when Musk was nonetheless a “special government employee” of the federal authorities. Hiya, DOGE? Right here is a few obvious fraud and waste so that you can uncover!
To qualify as a small deprived enterprise, the bulk possession of an organization have to be held by members of a “socially and economically disadvantaged” group. Based on the Code of Federal Laws, socially deprived individuals are these “subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society.” Economically deprived people are these with a internet value of lower than $850,000.
As of noon Friday, Musk’s internet value is over $413 billion. He’s a white, straight man and isn’t topic to any prejudice, which implies he meets neither prong of the SDB necessities.
To be truthful, maybe Musk’s firm thought it may declare Musk was struggling ethnic prejudice as a result of he’s a white South African, provided that each he and Trump imagine so fervently that white South Africans are probably the most persecuted individuals in existence, mainly the one individuals oppressed sufficient to get refugee standing today.
Demonstrators protest towards Elon Musk and the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity outdoors a Tesla dealership on April 12 in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
This doesn’t seem like a onetime error, both. Musk Watch discovered that Neuralink has claimed this identical designation in 11 totally different federal filings since 2017. It isn’t clear if Neuralink has really acquired any cash from the federal government through this obvious rip-off, however that isn’t actually the purpose. The mere act of signing off on the federal varieties can be fraud—the precise type of fraud that the administration has pretended it’s rooting out.
All of that is particularly ironic provided that Musk in any other case actively scorns range efforts.
Issues at Tesla, his electrical car firm, have allegedly been so racist that final 12 months a California state decide dominated that 6,000 of its Black employees may collectively sue the corporate as a category as a result of they alleged Tesla had a “pattern or practice” of failing to handle and stop discrimination towards Black employees.
Moreover, beneath then-President Joe Biden in 2023, the Equal Employment Alternative Fee sued Tesla for allegedly tolerating racist harassment and retaliating towards employees who opposed the harassment. It’s unclear what is going to occur with that go well with, however Tesla already obtained a present from the Trump administration, which reportedly dropped a Division of Labor investigation into discrimination on the firm.
Musk has additionally been wanting to assault any range efforts and has gleefully slashed funding for associated initiatives. He turned Twitter into X, a neo-Nazi hangout whose chatbot turned so antisemitic that Musk needed to shut it down. This isn’t an individual who believes the federal government ought to lend a serving to hand to individuals who have suffered racial, ethnic, or cultural prejudice.
That mentioned, Neuralink’s reported actions make good sense throughout the paradigm of the Trump administration. In that worldview, the individuals who really qualify for the small-disadvantaged-business designation don’t deserve it, as a result of they weren’t chosen on the idea of benefit. To them, the true racism is something that doesn’t reward white individuals. So why shouldn’t Musk’s firm seemingly interact in a little bit gentle fraud to get the benefit it believes it so richly deserves?
