A group of Tesla shareholders which includes New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is calling for investors to vote against Elon Musk's $46 billion pay package.
The group of shareholders wrote to other Tesla holders arguing that the electric-vehicle maker had governance issues. They said that the company's board was too close to Musk and had failed to properly evaluate the pay package.
The letter calls for shareholders to reject the reelection of two directors, Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch, arguing that they have particularly close personal ties to Musk.
Shareholders are set to vote on Musk's pay package and other proposals, including moving its incorporation to Texas, on June 13. Tesla's massive compensation package for Musk was originally proposed and approved in 2018, but was struck down by a Delaware court in January.
Tesla has since re-proposed the pay package, which is currently valued at around $46 billion, in its proxy filing and has looked to convince shareholders to support the measure.
In their letter, the shareholder group argues that Tesla's board is stacked with allies of Musk, and the body has not properly held the chief executive to account, even as he spreads his time among the multiple companies he leads. Kimbal Musk is Elon's brother and has served on the board for two decades, while Murdoch is a personal friend, the letter says.
Murdoch's family has a controlling stake in News Corp, which owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones.
The group of shareholders also includes SOC Investment Group, union-owned Amalgamated Bank, United Church Funds, Nordea Asset Management and AkademikerPension, a Danish pension fund.
Lander, as NYC comptroller, oversees the city's public pension funds.