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Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is an enigmatic individual, to say the least, and he seldom fails to surprise.
With that in mind, a Wall Street Journal report revealed on Saturday that Musk, who also founded and runs the Starlink satellite-based internet service is being advised by two very different men, causing some clashes within his inner circle.
“On one hand, 48-year-old wealth manager Jared Birchall is an Eagle Scout and devout Mormon who participated in a musical group called ‘The Birchall Family Singers.’ On the other hand, 34-year-old Igor Kurganov is a Russian-born, former professional gambler who dropped out of college because he smoked too much weed,” The Daily Wire noted, citing the WSJ’s report.
The Daily Wire adds:
According to The Wall Street Journal’s account — based upon the testimony of over one dozen people who conduct business with Musk and his advisers — Kurganov slept at Musk’s home after the onset of COVID and offered advice on how he could aim for “effective altruism” by giving away his $219 billion fortune. Kurganov, who grew up in Germany and earned $18 million through gambling, replaced members of Musk’s security detail with his own hires and was eventually given $5.7 billion in Tesla shares to donate — a compromise move that followed Birchall rejecting Musk’s proposal to let Kurganov run all of his charitable giving.
Birchall has officially directed the Musk Foundation since 2016, leads the family office managing the entrepreneur’s fortune, sits on the board of The Boring Company, and serves as CEO of Musk’s neuroscience company, Neuralink. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Birchall met Musk while working for investment bank Morgan Stanley in southern California.
The WSJ reports that the two men battled each other last year after Kuranov was given an official email address at the Musk Foundation.
An FBI agent assigned to monitor foreign influence in top American companies started asking questions about Kurganov’s quick entry into the fund, which then served as a huge cause for concern for Birchall, leading him to warn against allowing Kurganov to lead the disbursement of the $5.7 billion in Tesla shares.
Eventually, Musk heeded Birchall’s counsel and discharged Kurganov from the charity, the report added.
“As The Wall Street Journal characterized, Musk has a penchant for making spur-of-the-moment business decisions,” The Daily Wire noted. “Most recently, Musk bought a large share in social media company Twitter and attempted to purchase the entire company for $44 billion — a move that he is now attempting to reverse due to Twitter’s alleged failure to disclose accurate information about the number of spam accounts on its platform.”
Last week, Musk announced that he was pulling out of the deal, which led to a quick response from Twitter vowing legal action.
“For nearly two months, Mr. Musk has sought the data and information necessary to make an independent assessment of the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” Musk’s legal team noted in a letter to the social media platform. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information.”
In addition, Musk stated that the information is key to Twitter’s business and financial models and performance which is why he requires it in order to complete the deal.
Twitter executives responded to Musk immediately afterward.
According to a report from the Associated Press, shortly after Musk sent a letter — via his attorneys — stating that he was walking away from the deal, Twitter fired back stating they will sue the Tesla and SpaceX founder.
“The chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board plans to sue Elon Musk to complete the $44 billion merger he just rejected and that Twitter is ‘confident’ it will prevail,” the outlet tweeted.
Musk’s flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. The possible unraveling of the deal is just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms. https://t.co/TiwE4psu4j
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 8, 2022
In response, Taylor tweeted that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon” with Musk and “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
