Elon Musk had been working illegally in the United States on a student visa when he became an entrepreneur, building Zip2 after dropping out of his Stanford program, according to a report. report by the Washington Post which cited former associates, court records and company documents.

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This contrasts with the fact that Elon Musk has become one of the biggest donors and supporters of Donald Trump’s campaign, amplifying Trump’s claims that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are destroying America . He even made allegations against Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats for “importing voters.”

Musk’s creation of Zip2 and its sale for about $300 million in 1999 was the springboard to Tesla and his other companies, which made him the richest person in the world. He then found X.com (the same name he relaunched to rename Twitter) which became PayPal. eBay bought PayPal, netting Musk about $176 million, which he used to bet on Tesla and SpaceX.

His net worth currently stands at $277 billion according to Bloomberg Billionaires. Hintwhich is a huge jump from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who came in second with $211 billion.

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However, foreign students cannot legally drop out of college and start a business, the report cited former Justice Department immigration litigator Leon Fresco as saying.

The situation was such that venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures, which invested $3 million in Zip2, demanded that Musk and his brother Kimbal obtain legal employment status within 45 days, otherwise the company would recoup its investment . Zip2 board members were even worried about this matter.

“We don’t want our founder to be forced out,” the report quoted Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member who later became chief executive, as saying. “We want to take care of this well before anything can spoil” the company’s path to an initial public offering (IPO), Proudian added.

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