The Washington Post has reported that Elon Musk was working illegally in the United States when he launched his business career.
The paper says Musk, who was born in South Africa, arrived in Palo Alto in 1995 for a graduate degree program at Stanford University. But it says according to former business associates, court records and company documents, he never enrolled in courses, working instead on his start-up.
Legal experts say that according to US immigration laws at the time Musk would have had to leave the country and would not have been allowed to work.
The paper says that a venture capital firm which invested in Musk’s company made his legal work status an issue, and one of Musk’s colleagues said, “We don’t want our founder being deported.”
Musk did not respond to request from The Washington Post for comment.
The paper says Musk’s actions are at odds with his recent focus on undocumented immigrants and US border security that have led him to back Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.