Congressional report says Musk’s companies faced $2.37B in federal fines, raising conflict of interest concerns

HOUSTON, United States

A new Congressional report released Monday said Elon Musk’s companies faced a combined $2.37 billion dollars in federal fines as President Donald Trump took office, raising concerns over potential conflicts of interest.

The minority report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is the chief investigative committee of the US Senate, dissected Musk’s billion-dollar companies – including Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink – and concluded that “Mr. Musk’s entanglements are enriching him and endangering the American people.”

“Since his appointment, Mr. Musk has taken a chainsaw to the federal government with no apparent regard for the law or for the people who depend on the programs and agencies he so blithely destroys,” said the report, using a logging metaphor pushed by Musk himself.

“The nature of Mr. Musk’s businesses, as well as their substantial earnings from government contracts, mean that he is deeply entangled in the regulatory functions of the government he is now empowered to shape,” the report continued. “President Trump could not have chosen a person more prone to conflicts of interest.”

The 43-page memo found that as of Jan. 20, Musk and his companies were subject to at least 65 actual or potential actions by 11 different federal agencies. The Senate subcommittee estimated that the potential financial liabilities for 40 of the 65 actions by eight of Musk’s companies totaled at least $2.37 billion.

Some of the fines documented included: up to $1.59 million in civil and criminal penalties for Neuralink’s alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act while performing experiments on monkeys and pigs; $1.19 billion in potential liability as a result of Tesla’s allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features; $633,009 in fines from SpaceX’s multiple failures to follow rocket launch requirements in 2023; a total of $713,114 in fines from 29 citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) against SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company; and $281 million in potential liability from Neuralink’s alleged false or misleading statements about its product risks.

White House: ‘Musk has never used his position for personal or financial gain’

The subcommittee’s list of documented fines did not include estimated liability for at least 25 other federal investigations or regulatory matters by three additional agencies looking into Musk’s companies.

“While the $2.37 billion figure represents a credible, conservative estimate, it drastically understates the true benefit Mr. Musk may gain from legal risk avoidance alone as a result of his position in government,” said the report. “Mr. Musk and his companies could gain millions or even billions more simply by avoiding the time, legal fees, and risk of being ordered to undertake remediation efforts or change labor practices.”

The subcommittee noted that Musk’s companies have received more than $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits going back more than 20 years and that SpaceX already had $10.1 billion in federal contracts.

“This figure also does not include the many billions of dollars that Mr. Musk and his companies could gain in other ways, including through new contracts they may secure or the competitive advantage they may gain by collecting intelligence on competitors,” said the report.

A statement released by the White House said the subcommittee’s claims were baseless.

“Mr. Musk has never used his position for personal or financial gain, and any assertion otherwise is completely false and defamatory.” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The subcommittee sent letters to Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, xAI and Neuralink on Sunday demanding more information about any federal investigations, litigation and regulatory actions involving each company.

The letters also requested what measures the companies had taken to deal with any possible conflict of interest involving Musk, who has majority stakes or controlling interests in the companies.

“The truth is that the breathtaking scope and scale of benefits Mr. Musk is gaining from his present position may never be known, and that is by design. The silence is strategic, and it is dangerous,” the report concluded.

“No one individual, no matter how prominent or wealthy, is above the law. Anything less than decisive, immediate, and collective action risks America becoming a bystander to the surrender to modern oligarchy – public power in private hands.”

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.