Elon Musk Hit With First Formal Conflict Of Interest Complaint Over FAA-Starlink Deal

[James48]

Source: Forbes

The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint Thursday with the inspector general overseeing the Department of Transportation, which asks the IG to investigate Musk’s involvement with the FAA deal and whether it ran afoul of federal law.

Federal law prohibits any government employees—including “special government employees” like Musk—from “participat[ing] personally and substantially” in any “particular matter[s]” in which the employee, their spouse, their companies or other business partners have any “financial interest,” with any “willful” violations being punishable by up to five years in prison or fines of up to $50,000 per offense.

The CLC raised concerns based on public reporting regarding the FAA deal—in which the agency is reportedly working with Starlink on improvements to its air traffic control systems—with the complaint citing a Washington Post report saying the FAA was “close to canceling” its existing $2.4 billion contract with Verizon in favor of working with Starlink, a division of Musk’s company SpaceX, as well as public comments from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy saying Starlink would “play some part” in upgrades to the agency’s systems.

Musk “appears to have personally and substantially participated” in the dealings around the FAA and Starlink, the CLC alleges, citing the billionaire’s known role overseeing DOGE.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/03/13/elon-musk-hit-with-first-formal-conflict-of-interest-complaint-over-faa-starlink-deal/

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Looks like a formal complaint with evidence. Worth reading

[2naSalit]

1. Good.

The system needs upgrading but not like this and not with him anywhere near it. I hope they address, also, the fact that he routed all contact with the agency through xitter.

[NJCher]

2. I tried

To get to the formal complaint but couldn’t find it. So many ads and pop ups at Forbes.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Why did it take so long?

[dchill]

4. Why did it take me so long to ask the same?

👍

[Baron2024]

5. Musk Is An Idiot

I would love to see this son of a bitch Musk get charged, get convicted, and go to jail. Either he is too stupid to know that he has been breaking the law or he does not care. I am not sure which is worse. Somebody needs to stop this fascist idiot. And he IS an idiot. Specifically an Idiot Savant- a person with high aptitude in one field, despite having significant impairment in other areas of intellectual or social functioning. Musk is a fascist Idiot Savant.

[KS Toronado]

6. "punishable by up to five years in prison"

Looks like we can put him away for the rest of his life once we have a Democrat in The
White House.

[AZJonnie]

7. Maybe they technically could, but probably won't. Even after the Bondi/Patel/Bongino shitshow, the next Democratic AG

won't want to appear to be 'weaponizing' the DoJ by going after Musk for his blatant corruption (and it will be WAY more than this before things are over). They'll want to make sure 'trust is restored' and be 'looking forward, not back' and other such 'being the adults in the room' sorts of reasons.

[mahina]

10. Im not so sure.

[intheflow]

8. Fingers crossed for multiple 5-year jail sentences!

Starlink
Cybertrucks in the military
Twitter used as the official mouthpiece of the government

15 years in jail would kill him, either psychologically or by the hand of one of his cellmates.

[yellow dahlia]

9. .