The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that in January, SpaceX granted Elon Musk, its founder and chief executive officer, a pay package that eventually totalled 1.3 billion restricted shares. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe says the award was contingent on the rocket company's establishing a colony on Mars with one million inhabitants and launching high-powered data centres into space. Mr. Musk has not achieved those goals. Even so, he can vote those 1.3 billion shares in shareholder decisions, according to SpaceX's offering prospectus. In other words, the company is allowing Mr. Musk to vote with shares he has not yet earned. "I have never heard of this," said Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado. "He basically found a way to hack the normal rules of corporate organization." The company has valued itself at more than $1.25-trillion (U.S.). Also, SpaceX does not plan to have the majority of its board be independent directors. The measures give him more command over a company where he controls 85 per cent of shareholder votes. The measures are a defensive moat that will entrench him permanently as CEO. One governance expert called Mr. Musk's compensation package "insane."