The Dogecoin Lawsuit against the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, accused of running a crypto pyramid scheme racketeering nearly $258 billion of the investors’ money, has expanded its presence as seven new plaintiffs and six defendants have joined the class action.
Keith Johnson, a New England electrician, initially sued Musk and his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, in the federal court of Manhattan in June. He alleged they intentionally drove up the price of Dogecoin thousands of percent and then let it crash, dumping hard-earned money of investors.
Related Reading: Celsius In Fresh Trouble: New Court Filing Says Company Hid Financial Woes, Misled Investors
This time, Musk’s construction company Boris. Co and Dogecoin Foundation join the lawsuit as new defendants. Dogecoin Foundation calls itself a non-profit firm that provides governance and support. And the remaining defendants are the initial developers of the meme coin project, Dogecoin, and market influencers who have previously promoted Dogecoin.
On the other hand, all the new plaintiffs are investors who lost by investing in Dogecoin, which was promoted as a joke in the beginning.
In line with Tuesday’s amended accusations at the Manhattan federal court, Elon Musk and his car company Tesla, SpaceX, including Boris. Co increased Dogecoin’s value more than its actual market value and lifted it up over 36,000% in around two years. And it earned these organizations “tens of billions of dollars” profit at the investors’ expense investing in Dogecoins, the complaint said.
Investors alleged that the defendants continued with their planned strategy of overhyped marketing, understanding that the project’s intrinsic value was lacking and “depended solely on marketing.”
Currently, Dogecoin is trading at around $0.06, which represents a decline of over 70% from its peak value of May 2021.
Dogecoin’s price currently stands at over $0.06. | Source: DOGEUSD price chart from TradingView.com Initial Case Filer Alleged Elon Musk Of Driving Dogecoin’s Price With Overhyped MarketingJohnson, the initial filer of the case, has claimed to lose over $86 billion by investing in Musk’s project and seeks for a tripled amount to be returned to settle the deal. He linked the coin’s market value decline of May last year. Besides, the defendant also wants Judges to declare Dogecoin trading gambling under the law and demands a legal restriction imposed on Musk and his companies to not promote the crypto project with their overhyped marketing.
Moreover, he pointed toward the Dogecoin sell-offs of May 2021 in the complaint and linked with it Musk becoming ‘Lloyd Ostertag’ to host a Saturday Night Live show on NBC when he called Dogecoin a Hustle. Afterward, the price of Dogecoin plummeted immediately from $0.65 to $0.47.
When the co-host Colin Jost asked about Dogecoin, the so-called fictitious financial expert at the Weekend Update segment, Elon Musk replied, “It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.”
Related Reading: Apple Inc. Finds A Way To Escape From Fake Crypto Wallet Hosting Case
And as the Dogecoin price decreased its value after the show and Johnson filed the case afterward, Musk appeared on Twitter immediately, noting he still supports the meme coin as the requests and courage of his workers from Tesla and SpaceX have influenced him to still support the project.
Featured image from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com
