Elon Musk’s perks at Tesla under Justice Department scrutiny: report

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves a US Senate bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 13, 2023.

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Federal investigators are widening a probe of benefits Tesla Inc. TSLA, +5.93% provided to Chief Executive Elon Musk as part of a criminal investigation, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department was probing personal benefits Tesla has provided the billionaire CEO since 2017, including a proposed house, citing unnamed sources close to the matter.

The new information indicates that federal prosecutors are interested in a broader investigation than reported in late August, the Journal said.

Tesla shares rose 0.5% on Tuesday, compared with a 0.2% decline on the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.81%. Tesla’s stock this year has climbed 16%.

Musk is on top of Bloomberg’s billionaires rankings, with a net worth estimated to be $244 billion.

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Wallace Witkowski

Wallace Witkowski came to MarketWatch from the Associated Press in New York, where he covered the business of Big Pharma, after covering FDA regulation of many of the same companies, as well as medical devices, in the Washington, D.C., area. Based in San Francisco, his current focus is on the more exciting world of semiconductors, videogames and cybersecurity, when he's not churning out earnings coverage. Follow him on Twitter at: @wmwitkowski.