Family Law

Real Life Iron Man Out of Money?

By ckramer

Elon Musk, the man that director Jon Favreau modeled the movie super-hero Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Junior in the recent Iron Man movie, is apparently bankrupt.

Musk was a founder of PayPal, which netted him a cool $200 million not very long ago. Since then, to earn the right to be the inspiration for Tony Stark, Musk helped design the Falcon 9 booster used by NASA, created Solar City, a leader in solar power and even helped create the hands down coolest electric car, the Tesla.

Now, according to an article in The New York Times, Musk told the divorce court that he is broke.

His wife, novelist Justine Musk, is trying to receive the house, alimony, child support and a cool $6 million in cash. On top of all that, Justine also wants part of the Tesla Motors and part of the stock in Musk?s rocket company SpaceX.

Musk claims to have put is final $35 million into Tesla, which nearly bankrupted two years ago.

Musk?s decision to save his stake in the company, according to experts, might make him an incredibly wealthy man yet again. The company went public in late June and raised $266 million in it’s initial public offering—making up for the $260.7 million Musk has personally invested in the company since its inception.

Musk and his wife Justine Musk do have a prenuptial agreement, which they signed shortly after marrying, but Justine is contesting this agreement in court.

There seems to be no doubt that Musk is a wealthy man and will rebound. Justine describes him as a billionaire who is merely have cash liquidity issues.

Justine has a blog where she has taken on critics that have claimed that she is merely a gold-digger looking to get something out for nothing.

?Is that what I deserve?? Mrs. Musk wrote about the negative descriptions of her, ?Golddigging? I don?t know. Who exactly deserves that kind of wealth? But based on our life and history together, is that reasonable? I think so.?

Musk recently wrote an open letter in the Huffington Post in which he described how California’s divorce laws are causing his financial strains.

What caught me by surprise, and forced me to seek emergency loans from friends, were the enormous legal fees I had to pay my ex-wife’s divorce lawyers. In a California divorce, the wealthier spouse must pay both sides of the battle even if they are not the aggressor.

The legal and accounting bills for the divorce total four million dollars so far, which is an average of roughly $170,000 per month for the past 24 months.

At the end of the day, looking at the future prospects for Musk, there should be plenty of money to go around and keep both parties living the life they grew accustomed to as a couple. Whether or not the prenuptial agreement will hold or if Justine Musk will be able to receive the amount she wants is something we are going to have to wait to see how the court decides.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on July 20, 2010 (boomark / email).