Imposter Elon Musk Sparks Outrage Among Chinese Attendees At New York Event: 'When I Saw Him In Person...'

Dozens of Chinese fans in New York were disappointed after discovering that the Elon Musk they expected to meet at an event was an impersonator. 

What Happened: The event organizer, Gary Kong, had allegedly promised that the Tesla Inc CEO would attend the launch of his new publication called The Wall Street Magazine, the South China Morning Post reported.

However, a lookalike showed up instead of the billionaire, leaving the fans baffled. 

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The report added that over 120 Chinese Musk fans headed to The James Hotel in Manhattan on April 27 to glimpse the tech mogul. The attendees waited for over an hour and a half before a man arrived who bore a slight resemblance to Musk. Only after the event did the people recognize that the man’s voice and appearance did not match Musk’s.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we think it was a fake Musk,” said Gao Weiwei, the person who took a photo with the fake Musk, in a video about the incident on the Chinese social media platform Weibo after the event. 

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“When I saw him in person, I thought: ‘Hey, that doesn’t look like Musk,'” Gao said, adding that “I just thought that maybe he looks a little different in real life.”

Kong told SCMP that he had never promised that Musk would attend the event.

The invitation obtained by The Paper read, “The main committee has invited many entrepreneurs, & Elon Musk. Mr. Elon Musk is the CEO and CTO of Space Exploration Technology (SpaceX), CEO of Tesla (TESLA), and the chairman of the board of directors of SolarCity.”

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