Elon Musk
| Photo Credit: AP
Elon Musk requested a U.S. choose on March 31 to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of working a pyramid scheme to help the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
In a night submitting in Manhattan federal courtroom, legal professionals for Musk and his electrical automotive firm Tesla Inc referred to as the lawsuit by Dogecoin buyers a “fanciful work of fiction” over Mr. Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about Dogecoin.
The legal professionals mentioned the buyers by no means defined how Mr. Musk supposed to defraud anybody or what dangers he hid, and that his statements comparable to “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” have been too obscure to help a fraud declare.
“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion,” Mr. Musk’s legal professionals mentioned. “This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.”
In a footnote, the legal professionals additionally rejected the buyers’ declare that Dogecoin certified as a safety.
The buyers’ lawyer, Evan Spencer, mentioned in an e-mail: “We are more confident than ever that our case will be successful.”
Investors accused Mr. Musk, the world’s second-richest particular person in accordance to Forbes, of intentionally driving up Dogecoin’s worth greater than 36,000% over two years after which letting it crash.
They mentioned this generated billions of {dollars} of revenue at different Dogecoin buyers’ expense, at the same time as Mr. Musk knew the foreign money lacked intrinsic worth.
Investors additionally pointed to Mr. Musk’s look on a “Weekend Update” phase of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” the place, portraying a fictitious monetary knowledgeable, he referred to as Dogecoin “a hustle”.
The $258 billion damages determine is triple the estimated decline in Dogecoin’s market worth within the 13 months earlier than the lawsuit was filed.
Dogecoin Foundation, a nonprofit, can also be a defendant and in search of the lawsuit’s dismissal.
Mr. Musk’s posts on Twitter, which he owns, have prompted a number of lawsuits.
He gained a courtroom victory on February 3 when a San Francisco jury discovered him not accountable for tweeting in August 2018 that he had organized financing to take Tesla personal.
The case is Johnson et al v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.
