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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Elon Musk has denied allegations that he groped and exposed himself to a flight attendant six years ago.
A news outlet, Insider, had reported that Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, paid a woman $250,000 in 2018 to settle a misconduct claim against him.
The report said Musk, who was receiving a massage from the woman in question during a flight on a private jet to London, exposed his erect pe**s to her, touched her leg without consent, and asked her to perform a s*x act.
It cited a woman who said she was a friend of the flight attendant in question.
Musk reacted to the allegations via a post on his Twitter page, the platform he is currently in the stalled process of buying for $44 billion.
“Those wild accusations are utterly untrue,”
“The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook,” the world’s wealthiest person tweeted on Thursday.
He, however, did not specify who “their” referred to, but added: “I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”
The South African-born entrepreneur, who holds a US, Canadian and South African citizenship, had earlier said he was switching his support from the Democratic party to the Republicans in the U.S.
“Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he added.
Earlier this week, Musk, whose estimated net worth is $265 billion, put on hold his bid to buy Twitter, saying it would not proceed unless he got proof of the number of spam accounts plaguing the platform.
As well as his prolific tweeting, on-again-off-again relationship with pop star, Grimes, sizeable wealth and SpaceX ventures, Musk is primarily known as the founder of electric vehicle company, Tesla.
He has said he wants to make humans an “interplanetary species” by establishing a colony on Mars.
Musk has also made headlines of a less flattering kind; Tesla has faced a series of lawsuits alleging discrimination and harassment against Black workers, as well as sexual harassment.
(AFP)