Stock options have an expiration date. A package of grants are expiring. When you exercise the options (buying the shares reserved for you at $x/ price of the s

Stock options have an expiration date. A package of grants are expiring. When you exercise the options (buying the shares reserved for you at $x/ price of the stock when you were granted the options) you have to pay taxes on the delta between grant price and current market price. To cover the taxes you need cash, which requires selling shares. Net worth doesn’t mean liquid cash. He lives off loans against stock, of which loans on unrealized gains generally come due when options expire. The IRS would not look kindly on selling shares to pay loans but not taxes. Plus, if the stock tanked between exercise and a year from now, like you suggest, he’d be royally screwed. I don’t see the IRS giving him a year+ to get the cash to pay the bill. I’m far from an Elon apologist but conspiracy theories that have purely legal explanations are weird