On Thursday, Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX were sued for $258 billion by plaintiff Keith Johnson who accused Musk of running a pyramid scheme to support Dogecoin.
Reports suggest that Johnson filed the complaint in federal court in Manhattan, accusing Musk, electric car company Tesla and space tourism company SpaceX of dishonest business dealings for endorsing Dogecoin.
The complaint also read that the accused were instrumental in pumping up Dogecoin’s price, only to let the value fall.
Johnson seeks to represent people who have lost money trading in Dogecoin since April 2019. Johnson is demanding $86 billion in damages, with triple damages of $172 billion.
The complainant is also asking for an order ‘stopping Musk and other firms from promoting Dogecoin’, and ‘proclaiming that trading Dogecoin is recognized as gambling under US and New York law.
The complaint claims that ‘Dogecoin’s selloff’ first began around the time Musk hosted the NBC show “Saturday Night Live”. He played a fictitious financial expert on the show’s Weekend Update segment and called Dogecoin “a hustle”.
It further said, “Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading”.
The complaint also collected public statements from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others who questioned the value of cryptocurrency. Bill Gates even went on to call NFTs, ‘a greater fool theory’.
The charges also read that Musk used his status of ‘World’s Richest’ man to function and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and personal amusement.
Also read: Elon Musk’s Tesla Faces $600M Loss in its Bitcoin Investment
