Elon Musk, and his firms SpaceX and Tesla Inc, are being sued for $258 billion in damages for “engaging in a crypto pyramid scam” involving Dogecoin.
The damages requested are roughly three times Dogecoin’s ATH market cap of $88.68 billion in mid-2021, which is more than 34 times its current market cap of $7.5 billion.
The class-action lawsuit, filed on Thursday in New York District Court by Evan Spencer Law, claims that Musk “used his eminence as the World’s Richest Man to control and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and pleasure.”
Plaintiff Keith Johnson, a US citizen, claims that Musk and his companies were “unjustly benefited” by $86 billion as a consequence of wire fraud, gambling, false advertising, misleading acts, and other illegal behavior, according to the filing.
Johnson says that he and other class members lost $86 billion between May 2021 and June 2022, and is seeking that amount in monetary damages, as well as another $172 billion in damages and fees:
“Defendant Musk is the self-appointed ‘Dogefather,’ ‘former CEO of Dogecoin,’ partner, developer, spokesperson, publicist, salesman, marketer, and promoter of Dogecoin, who assembled the ‘Doge Army’ including his corporations and various billionaires, influencers, and celebrities to increase the price, market cap and trading volume of Dogecoin.”
Musk said in January that his electric vehicle startup Telsa will take DOGE as payment for its goods. He stated in May that Dogecoin payments would be accepted by SpaceX, his space exploration company.
The lawsuit also seeks an injunction defining Dogecoin trading to be gambling under New York and federal law, as well as allegations that Musk and his firms broke state and federal gambling regulations.