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A defamation case brought against Tesla chief executive Elon Musk by critic Randeep Hothi is apparently coming to a close, reportedly costing the billionaire ten big ones<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawyers representing Hothi, a vocal member of the TSLAQ<\/a> short-seller community on Twitter, said in a statement that Musk asked to settle the nearly three-year-old case back in March. Hothi tweeted on Monday that he accepted the alleged offer, \u201cfor a modest $10k.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tesla skeptic added that he \u201clook[s] forward to receiving a check from him in the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n Hothi rose to prominence<\/a> as a skeptic of Tesla\u2019s gigafactory plans and \u201cfull self-driving\u201d tech. In 2019, Tesla sought a permanent restraining order against Hothi, alleging he had \u201cstalked, harassed, and endangered<\/a>\u201d employees while they were out driving in a Model 3.<\/p>\n Additionally, Tesla said Hothi had trespassed on, and installed cameras around, its Fremont, California, facility.<\/p>\n In response, a \u201cdefense fund<\/a>\u201d for Hothi on GoFundMe aimed to raise $100,000, and ultimately secured $229,592. Tesla soon dropped its case<\/a> without publicly disclosing evidence to back up its claims.<\/p>\n Yet, the saga took another turn about a month later, when Musk claimed in an email to another vocal critic of the company, Aaron Greenspan, that Hothi had \u201calmost killed Tesla employees.<\/a>\u201d Greenspan published the CEO\u2019s email, and Hothi later sued for defamation in the Alameda Superior Court of California.<\/p>\n Hothi\u2019s lawyers claimed that Musk\u2019s comment \u201cprompted an onslaught of hateful Twitter response,\u201d saying the CEO\u2019s supporters accused \u201cHothi of being a liar, a murderer, a terrorist, and a deranged maniac,\u201d per an August 2020 complaint. Lawyers representing Musk petitioned the court to dismiss the case, but it ultimately moved forward to discovery.<\/p>\n