© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A photograph of Elon Musk is displayed on a smartphone positioned on representations of cryptocurrency Dogecoin on this illustration taken June 16, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Elon Musk requested a U.S. decide on Friday to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of working a pyramid scheme to assist the cryptocurrency .
In a night submitting in Manhattan federal court docket, legal professionals for Musk and his electrical automotive firm Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc referred to as the lawsuit by Dogecoin buyers a “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and sometimes foolish tweets” about Dogecoin.
The legal professionals stated the buyers by no means defined how Musk meant to defraud anybody or what dangers he hid, and that his statements akin to “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, solely Doge” have been too imprecise to assist a fraud declare.
“There’s nothing illegal about tweeting phrases of assist for, or humorous photos about, a professional cryptocurrency that continues to carry a market cap of almost $10 billion,” Musk’s legal professionals stated. “This court docket ought to put a cease to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the criticism.”
In a footnote, the legal professionals additionally rejected the buyers’ declare that Dogecoin certified as a safety.
The buyers’ lawyer, Evan Spencer, stated in an e mail: “We’re extra assured than ever that our case shall be profitable.”
Traders accused Musk, the world’s second-richest individual based on Forbes, of intentionally driving up Dogecoin’s value greater than 36,000% over two years after which letting it crash.
They stated this generated billions of {dollars} of revenue at different Dogecoin buyers’ expense, at the same time as Musk knew the foreign money lacked intrinsic worth.
Traders additionally pointed to Musk’s look on a “Weekend Replace” phase of NBC’s “Saturday Evening Dwell” the place, portraying a fictitious monetary professional, he referred to as Dogecoin “a hustle.”
The $258 billion damages determine is triple the estimated decline in Dogecoin’s market worth within the 13 months earlier than the lawsuit was filed.
Dogecoin Basis, a nonprofit, can also be a defendant and looking for the lawsuit’s dismissal.
Musk’s posts on Twitter, which he owns, have prompted a number of lawsuits.
He gained a court docket victory on Feb. 3 when a San Francisco jury discovered him not answerable for tweeting in August 2018 that he had organized financing to take Tesla non-public.
The case is Johnson et al v. Musk et al, U.S. District Courtroom, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.
