Tesla Shareholders Approve Musk's Massive Pay Package, Musk Prepares to "Pull a LOT of Rabbits Out of the Hat"

Tesla Shareholders Approve Elon Musk’s $1 Trillion Pay Package

Tesla shareholders approved a record-setting pay package for Chief Executive Elon Musk, a plan designed to motivate the world’s richest man with as much as $1 trillion in additional stock.

Flanked by dancing humanoid robots on a stage bathed in pink and blue light at the electric vehicle maker’s Austin, Texas, headquarters, Musk thanked the crowd of shareholders who supported the pay package with more than 75% of the votes cast.

“What we’re about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla but a whole new book,” Musk said. “I guess what I’m saying is hang onto your Tesla stock,” he added later.

First Brands Says It Needs $600 Million or ‘It’s Game Over’

First Brands Group lawyers said the auto-parts company needs access to its roughly $600 million of remaining bankruptcy financing or it will have to shut down immediately.

That request, made during a Thursday court hearing in Houston, represents the rest of the $1.1 billion financing being offered by a group of First Brands lenders. US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez last month authorized the company to make an initial $500 million draw on the loan, and a hearing to consider the current request will continue Friday.

“We are talking high stakes, as high as they get,” company attorney Sunny Singh said during the hearing. If the judge sides with holdout creditors and rejects the financing package, Singh said “it’s game over” and the firm will liquidate.

Trump Wants U.S. as ‘the Bitcoin Superpower,’ Says Crypto Must Be Done Properly

Speaking at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, day one of the two-day America Business Forum in Miami, Florida, President Donald J. Trump urged the United States to embrace crypto and sketched an ambition for U.S. leadership. “We are here … to embrace a vital industry here in Miami,” he said.

Trump cast his administration as reversing hostility in Washington: “I’ve also signed historic executive orders to end the federal government’s war on crypto. Crypto was under siege. It’s not under siege anymore.” […]

Trump framed the goal as national leadership: “We’re making the United States the Bitcoin superpower, the crypto capital of the world,” and tied his tech message to AI by calling the U.S. “the undisputed leader in artificial intelligence.”

Fraudster Who Touted Qatari Ties to Pay $1 Million in SEC Case

An insurance salesman who allegedly facilitated a fraudulent investment scheme by falsely claiming he was connected to the Qatari royal family must pay $1 million in disgorgement and penalties following a default judgment in the SEC’s suit against him.

Ali Derakhshanfar failed to answer or defend the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud claims filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California last March, Judge David O. Carter said in the ruling.

The default judgment marks the latest win for the regulator as it zeroes in on investor harm and straightforward fraud under the second Trump administration.…