Elon Musk’s unlikely foe in $56bn pay defeat: US thrash metal drummer

Musician Richard Tornetta, who held just nine shares in Tesla, brought case against the company's CEO

Elon Musk suffered one of the biggest legal losses in US history this week when the Tesla chief executive was stripped of his $56bn pay package in a case brought by an unlikely opponent: a former heavy metal drummer.

Richard Tornetta sued Musk in 2018, when Tornetta, a Pennsylvania resident, held just nine shares of Tesla. The case eventually made its way to trial in late 2022 and on Tuesday a judge sided with Tornetta, voiding the enormous pay deal for being unfair to him and all his fellow Tesla shareholders.