Elon Musk sells $906.5 million worth of Tesla shares

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold another 934_091 shares of his electric car company_ which are worth around $906.49 million_ according to a pair of financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission published late Monday.

He also exercised options to buy 2.13 million shares at the strike price of $6.24 per share granted to him via a 2012 compensation package.

Shares of Tesla closed down 5% at $966.41 on Monday.

The latest insider transactions by the Tesla CEO and centi-billionaire were part of a  Rule 10b5-1 trading plan dated Sept. 14_ the filings said. This type of plan allows company insiders to execute trades in their own company s stock for a set_ future date.

Musk_ who is the wealthiest person in the world and who was just named Time Magazine s 2021 Person of the Year_ still has millions of stock options that he needs to exercise by August 2022. He revealed at the 2021 Code Conference on Sept. 28 that he would likely sell a large chunk of stock in the fourth quarter.

Ever the showman_ on Nov. 6_ Musk asked his legions of Twitter followers to vote on whether or not he should sell a 10% chunk of his holdings in the electric car and solar business. In his Twitter poll_ Musk wrote:  Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance_ so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?

He gave his tens of millions of followers the option of a  Yes or  No vote_ and said he would abide by the results_ whichever way the poll went. Twitter s poll results display said that about 3.5 million responded_ with 57.9% voting  Yes.

After Musk s poll_ Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden_ D-Ore. wrote in a tweet of his own_  Whether or not the world s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn t depend on the results of a Twitter poll_ he wrote.  It s time for the Billionaires Income Tax.

Musk_ who is against a billionaire s tax and President Joe Biden s Build Back Better spending_ responded to Wyden with a crude retort.

More recently_ Musk said at the Wall Street Journal s CEO Council Summit_ that  If you zeroed out all the billionaires_ you still wouldn t solve the deficit in the United States. He also cursed about the  anti-billionaire sentiment in the U.S.

Musk still needs to sell about another 5 million shares of Tesla to fulfill the promise he made in his Twitter poll.

Earlier this month_ the CEO also sold Tesla shares in batches amounting to about $963.2 million_ and $1.01 billion worth of stock_ bringing his total sold in December to more than $2.87 billion so far. He sold a total of $9.85 billion in Tesla stock in November.

Besides Musk_ Tesla execs including CFO Zachary Kirkhorn_ Chief Accounting Officer Taneja Vaibhav and Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering Drew Baglino have also sold Tesla shares and exercised options in December.