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Comment by 0xB31B1B | Hacker News Reader

He is effectively paying for these flights by buying Canoo stock. This whole structure is set up to allow him to maximize the tax efficiency of his compensation. The jet travel is realized as a business expense and offsets future potential profits at the company, he also avoids paying the ~60% (federal and state income tax, as well as payroll tax paid by employer) tax that you incur paying high wage w2 employees.

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Interestingly, he also had a lawsuit at his prior company for excessive use of private jet use on personal travel:

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/0...

> Aquila Commits Misappropriation Of Solera Assets And Resources

> After execution of the Separation Agreement and Omnibus Agreement, Solera confirmed that prior to his separation from the Company, Aquila had misappropriated Solera’s resources and money by fraudulently claiming that certain flight and hotel expenses were for Solera business, when in fact, Aquila incurred these expenses solely on personal, non-Solera business—including fundraising for his intended new investment venture.

> Specifically, Aquila used a private jet chartered by Solera (Gulfstream IV- SP-N910AF) solely for Aquila’s personal business, but nevertheless charged the flights to Solera, between November 2018 and May 2019—i.e., when Aquila was still Solera’s President and CEO. For example, Aquila had Solera pay over $700,000 for 45.8 hours of flight time for Aquila’s trips to, among other places, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria, Qatar, Kuwait, and France, as well as thousands of dollars for certain hotel expenses associated with certain of these trips. These trips were not for Solera business. Aquila traveled for personal purposes, including in connection with his position as the Chairman of the Board of Sportradar and to fundraise for his new “Founders Select” venture.

> Solera is continuing to investigate Aquila’s pre-separation activities with respect to any further instances of fraud, theft, misappropriation, or other actions of Aquila giving rise to claims that are not released under the Separation Agreement.

My friend, that is not how public companies work.

Every common shareholder is an equal, you don't get to launder jet travel the way he's doing - that's securities fraud.

It’s actually not fraud because it’s happening in the open with board approval. And, no not every share holder is an equal. A share holders relevance is proportional to their voting power. While you can’t outright fleece a shareholder, it’s not the case that a single share held is worth the same as is given the same rights as someone holding 51% of all shares. At that point they effectively own the company. The company still has residual responsibility by law and regulation to all shareholders but it not nearly as broad as you seem to paint. This structure described is absolutely ok. Further the fact it’s publicly disclosed almost entirely insulates them - if you don’t like it, vote your shares or sell it on the public market.

>He is effectively paying for these flights by buying Canoo stock.

If a CEO is intentionally creating a situation to make a company unprofitable and paying it back by buying shares, that is 100% securities fraud and I'm stunned anyone disagreed with that assertion.

Yes but that’s actually not what’s happening, so seems a bit of a non sequitur.

Yes. I agree. That was the point I was making.

I'm not saying the company is committing securities fraud, I am saying that if the company created a scheme as described by the commentor I was replying to, then that would be securities fraud.

Exactly. Strangely this is actually tax efficient for both parties.

Not a good thing.

Says the temporarily embarrassed millionaire

Permanently embarrassed if we're being realistic.

This slogan is boring.

The politicians play us with "eat the rich" and "fair share". Meanwhile they increase taxes on 400k in HCOL areas making it painful to succeed.

Why isn't the slogan "stop the loopholes" (The one in this thread)? Because politicians play us against each other instead of fixing laws they benefit from.

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