Marko Elez

Marko Elez is a 25-year-old engineer whose access to sensitive U.S. Treasury payment systems has raised concerns. A 2021 Rutgers graduate, he worked at SpaceX on vehicle telemetry and starship software, then at X (formerly Twitter) on search AI. He now has administrator-level privileges to the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System at the Bureau of Fiscal Service, which handle most U.S. government payments. His role appears connected to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, though sources cited by WIRED express concern about his extensive system access given his lack of government experience. Elez posted in July: “‘Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”.