By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s political action committee failed to pay registered swing state voters as promised during last year’s U.S. election in return for signing a petition or referring other voters, according to a proposed federal class action lawsuit.
Musk’s America PAC helped Republican President Donald Trump beat Democratic challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the lead-up to the November election, Musk offered voters in seven states that were considered key to the election $47 and later $100 for signing a petition supporting the U.S. Constitution. Registered voters were also promised payments for referring voters in the seven states who signed the petition.
The three plaintiffs, residents of Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, claim that America PAC breached a contract by failing to pay in full. The lawsuit, filed on May 8 in Philadelphia, seeks to represent a class of everyone who signed or referred someone to sign the petition and was not paid in full.
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and the world’s richest person, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His PAC also pledged to give away $1 million daily to someone who signed the petition in support of Constitutional guarantees to freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. A separate proposed class action has claimed the giveaway was a fraud.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Nia Williams)
