Errol Musk, the 79-year-old father of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has been accused of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren since 1993, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The outlet said those allegations could be why the entrepreneur, who temporarily served as an adviser to the second Trump administration, rarely mentions his father – and that family members of Elon Musk have reached out for help, prompting him to sometimes take action to intercede.
Errol Musk dismissed the allegations reported by the Times out of hand, telling the publication they were “false”. Asked for comment by the Guardian, Errol Musk provided a list of answers to queries from the Times, including replies that read “this is nonsense” and “this is absolute rubbish”.
Citing personal letters, emails and interviews with family members, the Times said that Errol Musk, who has at least nine children and stepchildren and has been married to three women, “maintains a powerful grip over much of the family”.
The Times said Elon Musk did not respond to the publication’s requests for comment.
Judging from court records, personal correspondence, social workers and interviews with family members, the Times said the earliest accusation against Errol Musk was in 1993, when his four-year-old stepdaughter told relatives he had touched her at the family house.
A decade later, the stepdaughter said she caught him sniffing her dirty underwear, the Times reported, adding that some family members have also accused him of abusing two of his daughters and a stepson.
Related: The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him?
Three separate law enforcement investigations were opened, the outlet said, citing police and court records, as well as family members’ accounts. Two of the inquiries ended without action, while it is unclear what happened in the third investigation.
“There was no evidence because this is nonsense,” Errol Musk said in a statement to the Times, saying “the reports are false”. He accused family members who were “putting the children up to say false things” and that they were trying to extort Elon, his eldest son.
Elon Musk has described a difficult relationship with Errol on the rare occasion when he has commented on his father. He told Rolling Stone in 2017 that his father had done “almost every evil thing you could possibly think of”.
In the profile, Musk said he had gone to live with his father at age 10 while his younger siblings, Kimbal and Tosca, stayed with their mother.
“I felt sorry for my father, because my mother had all three kids. He seemed very sad and lonely by himself. So I thought, ‘I can be company,’” he said.
He continued: “I didn’t really understand at the time what kind of person he was … It was not a good idea.”
Without going into specifics, he told the publication, “My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil.”
