Keith Johnson is seeking $ 86 billion in damages from Elon Musk after accusing Tesla’s CEO of machinery. ALY SONG / Reuters
Elon Musk was sued on Thursday for $ 258 billion by a Dogecoin investor who accused him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson charged Musk, the electric car company Tesla Inc. TSLA-Q and the space tourism hardware company SpaceX to promote Dogecoin and raise its price, only to let the price fall.
Musk is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
“The defendants were aware from 2019 that Dogecoin had no value even if it promoted Dogecoin to benefit from its negotiation,” the complaint said. “Musk used his pedestal as the richest man in the world to operate and manipulate the scheme of the Dogecoin pyramid for profit, exposure and fun.”
The complaint also adds to the comments of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others questioning the value of the cryptocurrency.
Tesla, SpaceX, and a Musk attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A Johnson attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what specific evidence his client has or expects to have that proves Dogecoin has no value and the defendants executed a pyramid scheme.
Johnson is seeking $ 86 billion in damages, which represents a decline in Dogecoin’s market value since May 2021, and wants it to triple.
He also wants to prevent Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin and have a judge declare that Dogecoin’s business is to play under federal and New York law.
The complaint said the sale of Dogecoin began when Musk hosted the NBC program Saturday Night Live and, playing a fictitious financial expert in a segment of “Weekend Update,” called Dogecoin a commotion. “.
Tesla in February 2021 said it had bought $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin and for a short period of time accepted it as payment for vehicles.
Dogecoin traded at about 5.8 cents on Thursday, below its May 2021 high of about 74 cents.
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