Elon Musk Facing $258 Billion Lawsuit for Promoting Dogecoin

Elon Musk Facing $258 Billion Lawsuit for Promoting Dogecoin

Elon Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX are being sued for $258 billion over claims that they "are engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme (aka Ponzi scheme) by dogecoin cryptocurrency." The lawsuit states that Musk and his companies "falsely and deceptively claim that dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all."

Dogecoin investor Keith Johnson filed a class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk and his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, Bloomberg reported.

The lawsuit states

"Defendants Elon Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla Inc. are engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme (aka Ponzi scheme) by dogecoin cryptocurrency."

The plaintiff argued that DOGE is "simply a fraud whereby ‘greater fools’ are deceived into buying the coin at a higher price."

According to the court document, Johnson is an American citizen who said he was "defrauded out of money by the defendants’ dogecoin crypto pyramid scheme." He claimed that Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX constitute an illegal racketeering enterprise to inflate dogecoin’s price.

The complaint describes:

"Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all."

"Since defendant Musk and his corporations SpaceX and Tesla Inc. began purchasing, developing, promoting, supporting, and operating dogecoin in 2019, [the] plaintiff and the class has lost approximately $86 billion in this crypto pyramid scheme," the court document details.

Johnson is seeking to represent a class of crypto-investors who have lost money trading in dogecoin since April 2019.

He is asking for $86 billion in damages and triple damages of $172 billion. In addition, he is seeking an order blocking Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla from promoting dogecoin, and declaring that DOGE trading constitutes gambling under U.S. and New York law.

The Tesla CEO has been promoting dogecoin on Twitter. He said the meme cryptocurrency has potential as a currency, calling it the people’s crypto.

In May, he said SpaceX will soon accept DOGE for merchandise and Starlink subscriptions could follow. Tesla already accepts the meme coin for some merchandise. Musk has also discussed allowing payments in dogecoin for some Twitter services if he becomes the owner of the social media platform.