Elon Musk faces allegations of sexual harassment.

According to a disclosure report by the online publication "Insider", the CEO of the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the space company SpaceX is said to have exposed himself to a flight attendant on a private plane and touched her without her consent.

He also asked her to engage in sexual activity and offered to buy her a horse.

Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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The flight attendant reported the incident to SpaceX, which then led to an arbitration process.

She received $250,000 in exchange for a promise not to file a lawsuit or go public with the matter.

Musk has strongly denied the allegations.

On Twitter he spoke of "wild accusations" that were "completely untrue".

The episode described in the report "never happened".

With the article, the publication pursued the goal of disrupting the recently agreed sale of Twitter to him.

Musk further tweeted that attacks against him were politically motivated.

The Tesla boss has recently spoken more about his personal political stance. This week he said he will no longer vote for the Democratic Party as he used to, but for the Republicans.

"Insider" cites a friend of the flight attendant in the story and documents she provided, including emails and a statement she signed describing the incident.

This statement was based on stories told by the flight attendant.

It said she was encouraged to obtain a masseuse license at her own expense outside of her regular duties in order to massage Musk.

The incident happened on a flight to London in 2016.

Musk asked the flight attendant to come to his room for a "full-body massage."

He was naked and initially wore a cloth, but revealed his erect penis during the massage.

He then touched her and offered her the horse if she would "do more", which she didn't do.

Harassment allegations at Tesla and SpaceX

After the incident, she got fewer shifts and felt she should be pushed out of the company for rejecting Musk's advances.

In 2018, she hired a lawyer and with their help filed a complaint with SpaceX's human resources department.

As a result, arbitration and the settlement agreement with the hush money came about.

Neither the flight attendant nor the girlfriend are identified in the report.

According to Insider, the friend said she decided to air the episode without consulting the flight attendant.

She saw it as her responsibility because she herself was a victim of sexual assault.

Musk called the girlfriend a liar.

He went on to say the story was written without "insiders" speaking to him.

However, the publication said it contacted Musk and he asked for more time to respond, but didn't respond despite the extended deadline.

He continued to write that if he was indeed prone to sexual harassment it was unlikely to come to light for the first time in his long career.

So far, such allegations against Musk have actually never come to light.

However, recently they have been present in his companies.

A former SpaceX employee blogged late last year saying "countless" co-workers had made sexual advances towards her.

Around the same time, six current and former Tesla employees filed a lawsuit alleging they had been subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace, including unwanted touching.

Some women also blamed Musk himself.

One of them told the Washington Post that Musk's sometimes raunchy tweets goaded her male colleagues.

The plaintiffs' lawyer spoke of an "attitude at the top"