Win Mcnamee | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
Elon Musk requested a U.S. decide on Friday to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of operating a pyramid scheme to help the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
In a night submitting in Manhattan federal court docket, attorneys for Musk and his electrical automobile firm Tesla Inc known as the lawsuit by Dogecoin traders a “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and sometimes foolish tweets” about Dogecoin.
The attorneys mentioned the traders by no means defined how Musk supposed to defraud anybody or what dangers he hid, and that his statements resembling “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, solely Doge” had been too imprecise to help a fraud declare.
“There’s nothing illegal about tweeting phrases of help for, or humorous footage about, a authentic cryptocurrency that continues to carry a market cap of almost $10 billion,” Musk’s attorneys mentioned. “This court docket ought to put a cease to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the grievance.”
In a footnote, the attorneys additionally rejected the traders’ declare that Dogecoin certified as a safety.
The traders’ lawyer, Evan Spencer, mentioned in an electronic mail: “We’re extra assured than ever that our case can be profitable.”
Buyers accused Musk, the world’s second-richest particular person in line with 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 traders’ expense, at the same time as Musk knew the foreign money lacked intrinsic worth.
Buyers additionally pointed to Musk’s look on a “Weekend Replace” section of NBC’s “Saturday Evening Stay” the place, portraying a fictitious monetary skilled, he known 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 Basis, a nonprofit, can also be a defendant and searching for the lawsuit’s dismissal.
Musk’s posts on Twitter, which he owns, have prompted a number of lawsuits.
He gained a court docket victory on Feb. 3 when a San Francisco jury discovered him not chargeable for tweeting in August 2018 that he had organized financing to take Tesla non-public.
The case is Johnson et al v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court docket, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.
