Elon Musk painted as ‘thin-skinned billionaire’ in court documents

Unsworth, who helped rescue a boys’ soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand in June 2018, went on to call Musk “a thin-skinned billionaire” with “a history of vindictively and intentionally ignoring the truth.” Furthermore, Unsworth’s recent filing reveals a raft of revelations that could impact Musk’s defense. Unsworth’s legal team has obtained an email sent by Musk to an external PR agency, for example, in which he calls himself a “f[***]ing idiot” for providing unverified information to a BuzzFeed news reporter — in this instance, for claiming Unsworth was a “child rapist” who took a “child bride.” Unsworth in fact met his partner — to whom he is not married — in 2011 when she was 32.

Many of Musk’s accusations against Unsworth — beyond the original “pedo guy” comment which his lawyers maintain wasn’t intended as a serious claim — came as a result of information provided to him by “private investigator” James Howard-Higgins, later revealed to be a convicted fraudster. In his deposition, Musk said that “in retrospect” he was “just taking us for a ride.” Howard-Higgins is now back in jail for violating the terms of his parole.

Reporting by Rachel England for Engadget.