Elon Musk reacts to sexual misconduct allegation as 'utterly untrue'

Elon Musk on Thursday rejected the explosive allegation which claims that he had sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016.

"Those wild accusations are utterly untrue," the world's wealthiest person posted on Twitter.

This comes as Business Insider reported earlier on Thursday that Musk's SpaceX paid $250,000 (roughly Rs. 2 crore) in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment claim from an unnamed private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her.

The article quoted an anonymous person who said she was a friend of the flight attendant. The friend had provided a statement as part of the private settlement process, according to the article.

Musk also termed this friend who claims their friend saw him 'exposed' as a liar and challenged her to describe any one thing, (scars, tattoos) that isn't known by the public.

He also added that she won't be able to do so, because it never happened.

Reuters was not able to verify the Business Insider account. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the Business Insider story or on Musk's tweets.

In addition to allegedly exposing himself, Musk rubbed the flight attendant's thigh and offered to buy her a horse if she would "do more" during an in-flight massage, Business Insider quoted the friend of the flight attendant as saying.

The flight attendant came to believe that her refusal to accept Musk's proposal had hurt her opportunities to work at SpaceX and prompted her to hire a lawyer in 2018, according to Business Insider.

The rocket company made the settlement out of court and included a nondisclosure agreement which prevented the flight attendant from speaking about it, Business Insider said. The news site did not name the friend or the flight attendant.

Musk, who is also chief executive of Tesla and is in the midst of a contentious effort to buy Twitter, said on Wednesday that he would vote Republican instead of Democrat, predicting a "dirty tricks campaign against me" would follow.

In the Business Insider article, Musk was quoted as saying the flight attendant's story was a "politically motivated hit piece" and that there was "a lot more to this story."