Stephen Knight
Mike Masnick ✅Literally swiping money from charities. Just straight up evil villain shit.
nadezhda@mmasnick Also what does it do to employees’ charitable tax deductions? Apart from rage about the theft, I’d be pretty pissed.
k_salberta@nadezhda04 @mmasnick I'm pretty sure that they need both the statement from the employer and a receipt from Benevity to legally deduct. Undoubtedly that's how this came to light.
@k_salberta @mmasnick Undoubtedly you’re right. I wasn’t clear whether each Twitter employee would get an acknowledgment of total donations for the year from the donation processor or from the beneficiary charity(ies) the employee “gave” to. Whichever, the employee would have expected to receive those acknowledgments by close of January to prepare tax returns
author_is_ShrikeTron🔠💉x5@mmasnick Thought it was some TFG crime family we all know, for a sec there.
edgeoforever 🍎@ShrikeTron @mmasnick he did the same with some widely publicized fundraising for vets in 2016!
Noah Cook@mmasnick So, ummm, I know that IT is a lot less heavily regulated, but in these cases isn't there also the even bigger problem of lying on the various official statements, some surely to government agencies, regarding where various funds were being directed?
@UncivilServant @mmasnick They have to do income tax for the co, but they don't file with the government on these contributions. The issue is that the employee won't have the receipt from Benevity listing the full amount of their deductions, so the employee can't use it as a charitable deduction.
Noted Tea Enthusiast@k_salberta
If Benevity can't process a donation, the designated charity can't get it. It is the charity's receipt of gift acknowledgement that is needed for individual tax filings.
Both charities and donors are screwed in various ways by this new Avenue of wage theft.
@UncivilServant @mmasnick
Thomas H Jones II@k_salberta @UncivilServant @mmasnick
The issue is fraud: payments were deducted from payroll for specific, agreed to uses. Clearly, that use has actually been "reducing payroll related payouts" rather than contribution to designated charities.
Elon just keeps piling up the civil and, now, criminal liabilities.
Sarah T. Roberts, Ph.D.@mmasnick What an absolute turd. This man has contributed nothing to humanity. Nothing.
Steve Torrente@ubiquity75 @mmasnick Lex Luthor is gonna take him aside at the next genius-business-scientist-villain meeting.
Boswell@theLastTheorist @ubiquity75 @mmasnick we're surely not still respecting the "genius" label for musk? 😅 Being able to shaft everyone and remain guilt-free does not a genius make
@Jamesboswell @theLastTheorist @ubiquity75 @mmasnick At this point, I'm pretty sure its use is as irony.
@ferricoxide @Jamesboswell @ubiquity75 @mmasnick Yeah, I never met a smart person who thought they were a genius.
@theLastTheorist @Jamesboswell @ubiquity75 @mmasnick
You have to be smart enough to know what you don't know (and what you have trouble picking up).
PB Livin'@ferricoxide @theLastTheorist @Jamesboswell @ubiquity75 @mmasnick I'm convinced the smartest people are the ones who know what they're good at and what they're bad at, and know how to hand off what they're bad at to people who are good at it.
@mmasnick Also, my day has been strange enough that I could be completely mistaken, but your post appeared at 24:30.
I usually use 12-hour time, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to look like that?
Sasha Fox@mmasnick Yeah, the only word for that is evil.
He's like the third or fourth richest person in the world and he's stealing from charities.
Stop That
hybrid havoc
LeisureguyStealing the money, got caught, and now hopes to cover it up by paying late. It's basically embezzling, and when the embezzlement is discovered, saying, "Well, hey, I'll put the money back and we'll call it even, eh? No harm, no foul? Right? ... Please?"
@mmasnick Any gift matching also has to be accounted for too.
That Anonymous CowardWe sure he's not one of Trumps kids?
skua@mmasnick
Where's the white collar cops?
Where's the white collar cops?
JenX@mmasnick Isn’t this fraud? Why is he allowed to get away with this stuff?
OpenDNA⚙️
kechpaja@mmasnick It could also be that they simply don’t have any money, but yeah.
webhat@mmasnick tbh people should donate directly, so the money doesn't arrive with 2 month delay, and only use benevity to ask for the company match. Benevity makes it look easier by deducting it from your pay, it adds unnecessary delays to the donations.
Benevity also has Shell in their giving program, so a number of environmental organisations refuse to use benevity so Shell can't use them for green washing
Agnew Hawk 
@mmasnick "Actively working on it" aka. Telling they're pretending to do smth about it, then hoping people stop asking questions about it.
⁰FisherTX14@agnew_hawk @mmasnick
Will be added to the list of debtors in bankruptcy is what working on it means.
Will be added to the list of debtors in bankruptcy is what working on it means.
fahru@mmasnick oh boy
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴...and maybe ethics is not even the biggest issue here:
Dani Barca ⛵️@mmasnick most likely explanation is that the guy who managed that got fired
Floon@mmasnick Trump's foundation did much the same. Birds of a feather...
Catherine is not complacent@mmasnick he really is Trump 2.0.
NancyAnn@CatDragon
Seems that when you grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth and have never been held accountable for anything you become an authoritarian for whom the law doesn’t apply.
Seems that when you grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth and have never been held accountable for anything you become an authoritarian for whom the law doesn’t apply.
@nancyann exactly. The sense of entitlement they’re raised with makes them insufferable.
@CatDragon
And dangerous.
And dangerous.
Richard@mmasnick So basically just wage theft?
@mmasnick This is new record in going low.
@k_salberta @mmasnick just another example of his callousness
@RoboGorillaman @mmasnick He literally does leave trail of slime wherever he goes.
Ariel Sanchez@mmasnick this should be featured in https://twitterisgoinggreat.com/
Lewis@mmasnick His abusive girlfriend Heard did the same before she beat him up too. Probably on his advice.
Dante Mercurio@mmasnick Upon being called out, I’m sure they quickly took the Constanza defense.
Beth@mmasnick If I did that, it would be a crime.
@mmasnick Elon's definitely one of those "first up against the wall when the revolution comes" types
Cheri@mmasnick These stable geniuses at work. 🙄
Kevin Karhan 
Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])
@maxkennerly also I'm convinced this is literally #WireFraud and that regulators like #SEC and @[email protected] would like to know more...
Oregon Wine Woman
Stu Duerson, machina exo deus@mmasnick Certainly theft in kind, if not fraud in intent. With the confluence of disgruntled former employees who would gladly prick the Twit, and the appearance of possible fraud in this transaction...Musk should be working 30/8 to get this money to the intended charities.
I wonder what Tesla & SpaceX might look like without Elon at the helm? I'd be willing to take a peek at that!
I wonder what Tesla & SpaceX might look like without Elon at the helm? I'd be willing to take a peek at that!
Jay@mmasnick surprised? I'm not. He has to make back as many pennies (cents) as he can from that ridiculous acquisition
Dan@mmasnick this one (and only his one) I’m going to assume complete incompetence resulted in these donations not happening. Not malicious intent.
I bet Musk fired the team responsible for making the donations.
That nobody on his Renfield techbro leadership care enough about charities to even consider if a program like that existed. So they didn’t add it to a list of essential services.
@mmasnick Now I am VERY curious if this opens up liability for the employees. Because if they listed these donations on their tax forms and the donations never happened…isn’t that fraud?
Jan Bennett@mmasnick just more grift! 😡