According to reports, plaintiff Keith Johnson filed his case in federal court in Manhattan, charging Musk, the EV maker, and the space tourism firm of racketeering for pushing Dogecoin to artificially inflate its price, only to see it plummet.
“Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading,” the complaint said. “Musk used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement.”
The complaint continued, “Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all,”
Johnson wants to represent a group of people who have lost money since April 2019 trading Dogecoin.
Johnson is seeking $86 billion in damages, as well as $172 billion in treble damages, for the drop in Dogecoin’s market value from May 2021. He also wants a judge to rule that trading Dogecoin constitutes gambling under federal and New York law, and he wants Musk and the corporations to stop promoting it.
With his “One Word: Doge” post in December 2020, Musk, who has long been accused of indirectly impacting the price of cryptos through his tweets, sent Doge surging.
When Musk dubbed himself “The Dogefather” in April of last year, he drove Dogecoin to the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market valuation. Johnson argues that saying Doge was a “hustle” on Saturday Night Live was the start of the crypto’s collapse, and he recently attacked the billionaire’s co-creator for calling the billionaire a “grifter.”
To read our blog on “In one case, bitcoin falls below $24000, resulting in a loss of $200 billion,” click here.
