Billionaire Elon Musk told a Delaware court that he "rather hates" being the chief executive officer of Tesla, and would instead prefer to divert his focus on engineering and design issues, reports said on July 13.
The remarks were made by Musk while appearing before the court in a case involving the $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity by Tesla in 2016.
Musk has been accused by a group of shareholders of pressuring the Tesla board to takeover SolarCity to save the latter from bankruptcy.
Musk, while out rightly denying the charge before the court, said he rather hates being Tesla CEO but is required to remain in the position "or else the company was going to die", Sky News reported.
Musk's role in the SolarCity deal also came under scanner as the company's founders, Lyndon and Peter Rive, are his cousins.
The Tesla chief, while defending himself, dismissed the charge that he was able to pressurise the investors using his influence and persona. Musk also told the court that he owned 22 percent stake in both, Tesla and SolarCity, and therefore, made no financial gains through the deal.
"Since it was a stock-for-stock transaction and I owned almost exactly the same percentage of both there was no financial gain," he was quoted as saying. Musk also added that he was in favour of the deal as they were both sustainable companies.
During the hearing on July 12, Musk was also involved in a heated exchange of words with Randall Baron, the lawyer cross-examining him. Musk called him a "bad human being".
On being asked later what triggered the remarks, he recalled Baron's past association with Milberg Weiss, a law firm where several former partners pleaded guilty of influencing shareholders to join legal suits against companies by paying them kickbacks.
"You were mentored by criminals, then you continued to be mentored by criminals and that's why I don't trust you," Business Insider quoted Musk as saying.