Facing defamation, Musk says he is short on cash, despite $20-bn net worth

Multi-billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk in the second day of his courtroom appearance as a defendant in a defamation case filed by Vernon Unsworth, a British man, over "pedo guy" tweet, disclosed that his net worth was $20 billion (roughly Rs 1,43,000 crore) but was short on cash.

"People think I have a lot of cash, I actually don't. I have stock in SpaceX and Tesla, and debt against that," he said during the trial, Forbes.com reported on Wednesday.

During the first courtroom appearance on Tuesday, Musk had said the "pedo guy" tweet was not meant to be taken literally. He filed a declaration that "pedo guy" was a common insult in South Africa about demeanour and appearances.

"It's quite common in the English-speaking world. Calling someone a 'pedo guy' means creepy. If you did a search or asked someone what it means it would be a creepy," he said.

Tesla CEO apologised to the cave diver in the court.

Lawyers for Unsworth argued that Musk was using his social media platform to damage the explorer's reputation and paint him as a paedophile.

Last year, he called Unsworth a "child rapist" in an email. Unsworth sued him two months later in a Los Angeles federal court, saying Musk falsely branded him a paedophile and child rapist.