Traffic laws apply to everyone – even the extremely wealthy. That includes billionaire Larry Ellison, who recently got ticketed while driving a C8 Corvette on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Per a recent report from Hawaii News Now, Ellison was stopped on Manele Road around 6:30 p.m. local time last October. Body camera footage shows Ellison in a C8 Corvette Stingray Convertible painted in what appears to be Amplify Orange Tintcoat paint (paint code G48).
Ellison’s face is blurred out as the Maui County police officer approaches the vehicle from the passenger’s side. The officer informs Ellison that he was pulled over for running a stop sign and speeding.
Ellison responds that he was on his way home for dinner with his kids, but adds “there’s no excuse. There’s no good excuse.”
After the officer requests he hand over his license and registration, Ellison looks around the vehicle for a few minutes before telling the officer he doesn’t have his driver’s license on him. The report goes on to state that Ellison did not challenge the traffic citation.
Ellison is co-founder, executive chairman, CTO, and former CEO at Oracle Corporation, one of the biggest software companies in the world. Just last week, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Ellison as the seventh-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $98.6 billion.
In 2012, it was announced that Ellison signed an agreement with Castle and Cooke company, owned by David H. Murdock, to buy most of the island of Lanai, the sixth-largest Hawaiian island. The purchase gave Ellison a 98-percent ownership of the island. In 2020, Ellison left California to live in Lanai.
Per the Hawaii News Now report, Ellison’s company was recently accused of using a gate to block local access to Hulopo’e Beach Park near his Four Seasons resort.
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Comments
Book him Dano!
It’s nice to see the ultra rich enjoy a good ole Chevrolet !
Class act.
It is good to know that still some decent people left even among ultra rich. This dude founded Oracle database you may familiar because majority of the companies use it. His worth is nearly hundred billion. So It’s no surprising that he recognizes the good deals and value in things. Since you basically buy for $90K equivalent or even better car than $250K European ones.
After climbing richness ladder to near the top you don’t need anymore to show your richness to others and instead you live for yourself anymore.
Buying a Bugatti, Bentley or some other overpriced PoS with your first million to showing off is what upstart people like athletes or rappers do.
By the way some trivia for you Larry Ellison has a seat on Tesla board yet he still drives Corvette instead of Tesla. And his son owns movie production company Skydance that co-produced Top Gun: Maverick.
Since I actually own a C8 and a high end German performance car, I can tell you the c8 is nowhere near the quality of performance/luxury euro cars. It’s a cheap muscle car with a ridiculously inflated msrp.
My AMG runs circles around the V8 can be driven in the snow (awd) and has a much much nicer interior and reliability.
C8 looks like a cheap Ferrari/McLaren. Which is cool af ofc.
The fastest AMG, with HP and torque over 600, has a 0-60 at 3.7 seconds. The C8 does it at 2.8… and that’s even if you own the fastest amg model..
Your “driving in the snow” argument may have some substance but then again, you don’t buy a C8 to drive in the snow.
As for claiming that the C8 MSRP is “ridiculously inflated”, you could not be more wrong! You sure you own one..?!
The way it should be!
Way to man up and own it. Being a decent human being. How refreshing. Hats off to you, sir.
Obviously, Mr. Ellison does not own ENOUGH of the island to CONTROL it.
If he did, he could establish the laws AND be be RESPONSIBLE for the CONSEQUENCES thereof!
Montana Bob
I agree with waterbilly. Dude totally manned up. If I was in that officers shoes I probably wouldn’t have given the ticket. I was a cop in LA and my last 12 years working the streets I probably let 80% of the people I pulled over go W/O citing them. When I realized how expensive the fines were, after all the BS court costs and everything else that gets added on. Those fines are easily half a weeks pay for most people. Of course Mr. Ellison can afford the ticket, but that’s not really the point. I’d much rather take the time that it was going to take for me to write out that ticket and have a conversation with you about what you did and why it can be dangerous. Not a lecture, but a conversation. That’s how people get educated and that’s what traffic enforcement should be most of the time, educating, not punishing. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you sir for being so understanding of what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a ticket.
I’m always as respect and honest as I can be its officers. None of this “admit to nothing, deny it all” nonsense since I figure the cop already knows why he pulled me over. Usually they give me a break and I’m both relieved and intent on improving my driving. It’s been ten years since I was last pulled over and that is more fun than speeding and a whole lot cheaper.
So if he owns “98% of the island” there was only a 2% chance that he was not on HIS property (vs public property) at the time of this encounter! Wow! Talk about bad luck.
. . . but C8L0VR, Ellison does not own the roads, so he has to follows the laws and, as stated previously by several commenters, he did so with class.
Montana Bob
Great guy I’m sure, just don’t think you cant get any better. Buys a island and not everyone is welcome not even on the Natives 2% pitance
As an IT guy and a frequent suffering administrator of Oracle products, screw him. I hope he gets a ticket every time he starts the car. He is responsible for taking many excellent Oracle products and a truly great American company and some of the best US-based support and knowledge, and offshoring and outsourcing to idiots. If he got hit by a meteor today, IMHO, the world would not be worse for it.
If you are in IT, you know the full story – he is just another jerk who got where he is on the shoulders of regular folks he would fire in a second if it increased the value of his stock options. He has put a huge amount of Americans out of work to get where he is. This includes some I personally know, who had nice lives and good careers and now work for a pittance for some offshore contracting company doing the exact same work.. If that is admirable, I’m talking to myself….