Elon Musk is accused of insider trading and intentionally manipulating the value of Dogecoin. Investors claim that Musk’s pranks cost them millions of dollars.
Investors claim that Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world according to the magazine Forbes, deliberately pushed up the price of Dogecoin by more than 36,000% in two years, and then provoked its collapse. About it writes Reuters, citing court documents.
Elon Musk is joking
The lawsuit against Musk began in June last year. However, on Wednesday, May 31, investors brought new charges against the head of Tesla and part-time owner of Twitter. This is the third amendment to the lawsuit.
The filing, filed in federal court in Manhattan, says that Musk, personally and through his company, controlled several Dogecoin wallets and profited from other investors by manipulating the value of DOGE using various “publicity stunts.”
Deliberate jokes, market manipulation and insider trading have helped Musk deceive investors while promoting himself and his companies, the statement said. The plaintiffs allege that he paid influencers for this purpose, exploited his own vast Twitter following, and even appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 2021.
According to investors, in April 2023, Elon Musk replaced the Twitter logo in the form of a blue bird with a logo and sold Dogecoin, thereby provoking a sharp jump in DOGE by 30%. Musk took advantage of the price increase and sold about $124 million worth of memcoins.
Protracted litigation
In June 2022, billionaire investor Keith Johnson sued Elon Musk, accusing him of supporting and promoting the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, which he called a fraudulent scheme. The billionaire claimed that he invested in the coin, guided by Musk’s tweets, and lost money.
In March of this year, lawyers for Elon Musk and Tesla demanded that the second amendment be rejected, calling it far-fetched and unjustified. They are sure that there is nothing reprehensible in posting funny pictures or words of support in favor of the meme cryptocurrency.
After Musk changed the Twitter logo, investors wanted to include the social network in the list of defendants in the case. But so far this has not happened.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he was “likely” to allow a third amended complaint, saying it did not infringe defendants’ rights.
What is happening with Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin ranks eighth in the ranking of cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. At press time, the coin is trading at $0.07154, down 90% from the all-time high reached in May 2021 at $0.7376.
Source: Cryptocurrency
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