A Brazilian Supreme Court justice seized about $3 million in frozen funds of social media platform X and satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, both companies controlled by billionaire Elon Musk.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to social media platform X and satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, both companies controlled by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The move by Justice Alexandre de Moraes was aimed at collecting funds that are equivalent to the amount that X owes to the country in fines. The bank accounts of the two companies have since been unfrozen.

Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes’ prior decision to freeze Starlink’s bank account to pay for cases related to X. While Musk owns both X and SpaceX, which operates Starlink, the two companies are separate entities.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
      0·
      2 months ago

      Framed to make it look like a corrupt judge, when its just the totally standard seizing of assets due to a fine that hasnt been paid.

      Happens to normal civilians all the time so why not to companies?

      • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        There’s a bit more nuance to it, as he seized assets of an unrelated(?) company.

        I mean, the relation is obvious, but in legal terms they are unrelated.

        Fuck Elon though, wished they seized more.

        • Skua@kbin.earth
          0·
          2 months ago

          Wasn’t Starlink saying it would refuse to comply with the court order to stop serving ex-Twitter in Brazil? Could this be related to that?

  • fluxion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    This was the only they were gonna get paid. Musk couldn’t even be bothered to pay the agreed lease on his own headquarters. And that was before he jammed his head up Trump’s asshole so he’s probably even more contemptuous about paying his dues now.

  • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Separate entities that decided to be in contempt of court over the same issue. That sort of shit justifies piercing the corporate veil. Starlink backtracked after they realized the absolute fuck up they performed, but that judge viewed it as too little, too late.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    3.3m / 182b = 0.0018% of Elon Musk’s wealth.

    What percentage of your wealth do you lose if you get caught driving 5mph over the speed limit?

    This shit needs to be proportional to both severity of the crime and total wealth.

    • dynamojoe@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 months ago

      Musk isn’t hurt by the amount of money he’s fined, but it annoys him terribly that he can’t control the situation and that his usual tools for getting his way are useless. It is a pebble in his boot that he can’t bluster, cajole, or bribe his way out of the problem like usual.

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      2 months ago

      My most recent speeding ticket cost me 14% of my bank account and about a week later resulted in me putting groceries on a credit card.

      I agree with you.

  • credo@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Should have withdrawn $2,299,999 just so Musk would have to pay that last dollar himself.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    While they are separate entities, its not like musk treats them as such when it benefits him. he redirected a ton of GPUs from tesla to twitter, for example