Elon Musk: Twitter owner regains title of world's richest person
2 June 2023, 10:20
Twitter owner Elon Musk has regained his title as the world's richest person - just hours after being accused of insider crypto trading.
Losing the title following his acquisition of the social media platform, the news follows a 66% rise in Tesla's share price which has helped to boost his fortune.
The news also follows a Wednesday night filing in a Manhattan federal court, with investors claiming Musk used Twitter posts and "publicity stunts" to trade profitably at their expense using popular crypto-currency Dogecoin.
The figures mean that 51-year-old Musk has retained the title from French billionaire Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH luxury empire.
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It follows the news Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, has resigned according to Reuters - marking the second departure from the position since Musk's takeover of the social media giant.
The Tesla and Twitter owner has seen his fortune recover to $192billion (£153billion) - a figure up $55billion from the start of the year.
It stands in contrast to Arnault, who has seen his wealth drop by $5billion in the past 24 hours to $187billion.
Arnault, who co-founded the luxury house 35 years ago, saw his worth soar in recent months, overtaking Musk in December last year after the value of LVMH shares soared.
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It coincided with Musk’s wealth falling as a result of a drop in Tesla’s share price following investor's fears the titan might be preoccupied with his recent Twitter takeover.
Musk handed over the reigns as CEO to NBC Universal executive Linda Yaccarino in May.
He previously said his dog was the chief executive of the social media platform.
It follows Musk's appearance in court after being accused of insider trading as part of a class action lawsuit by investors accusing the Tesla CEO of manipulating cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
The filing noted a "deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation and insider trading" which enabled Musk to defraud investors.
Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, declined to comment on Thursday, with investors the world's richest person of deliberately driving up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000% over two years and then letting it crash, according to Forbes magazine.
