> Both pre-IPO investors said that even after getting their feet in the door, they had to visit SpaceX’s headquarters. There, in a reversal of roles, they were interviewed by Musk’s team, including CFO Bret Johnsen, before they were given the go-ahead to invest. Ultimately, they needed personal approval by the world’s richest person, and despite pouring in millions of dollars, they said they were given limited financial information about the company.
This, and other parts of the article, sound less like cold rational decision making on the part of the investors, and more like a cult leader finding people to convert. Or the popularly given rationale for why spam emails are often full of errors: filter out smart people to leave behind easy marks.
The real “how” is that our laws are not good enough to prevent the kind of corruption practiced by Trump and Musk. And agencies like the SEC are wasting time on useless side quests instead of going after the most obvious examples of fraud - like an administration that makes outrageous announcements all the time, that their friends and family can trade on. And they’re not going to go after Musk and everyone who is part of that IPO either.
> Both pre-IPO investors said that even after getting their feet in the door, they had to visit SpaceX’s headquarters. There, in a reversal of roles, they were interviewed by Musk’s team, including CFO Bret Johnsen, before they were given the go-ahead to invest. Ultimately, they needed personal approval by the world’s richest person, and despite pouring in millions of dollars, they said they were given limited financial information about the company.
This, and other parts of the article, sound less like cold rational decision making on the part of the investors, and more like a cult leader finding people to convert. Or the popularly given rationale for why spam emails are often full of errors: filter out smart people to leave behind easy marks.
The real “how” is that our laws are not good enough to prevent the kind of corruption practiced by Trump and Musk. And agencies like the SEC are wasting time on useless side quests instead of going after the most obvious examples of fraud - like an administration that makes outrageous announcements all the time, that their friends and family can trade on. And they’re not going to go after Musk and everyone who is part of that IPO either.