Dogecoin: Elon Musk seeks to end $258 billion lawsuit

Elon Musk on Friday asked a U.S. judge to dismiss a $258 billion racketeering suit accused of running a pyramid scheme to back cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

In an evening filing in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for Musk and his electric car company Tesla Inc called the lawsuit intended by Dogecoin investors a “work of fanciful fiction” over “harmless tweets.” “and often idiotic” from Musk about Dogecoin, reported by Reuters.

The lawyers said the investors never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone or what risks he was hiding, and that his statements such as “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no ups, no downs, only Doge” were too vague to support an allegation of fraud.

“There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support or amusing images to offer of a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion,” the lawyers said. Musk. “This court should put an end to the fantasy of the suspects and dismiss the complaint. »

In a footnote, the lawyers also rejected the investors’ claim that Dogecoin qualified as a security. Investors’ attorney Evan Spencer said in an email: “We are more confident than ever that our deal will succeed. »

Investors have accused Musk, the second richest person in the world according to Forbes, of deliberately driving up the price of Dogecoin by more than 36,000% over two years and then letting it crash.

They said it generated billions of dollars in profits at the expense of other Dogecoin investors, even though Musk knew the currency lacked integral value. Investors also pointed to Musk’s appearance in a “Weekend Update” segment of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” where, portraying a fictional financial expert, he called Dogecoin “a hustle.”

The $258 billion damages figure is three times the estimated decline in Dogecoin’s market value in the 13 months before the lawsuit was filed.

Dogecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization, is also an advocate and is asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Musk’s posts on Twitter, which he owns, have led to multiple lawsuits.

He won a court victory on February 3 when a San Francisco jury found him not responsible for tweeting in August 2018 that he had arranged financing to take Tesla private.

Reuters