The world is not even in the second financial quarter of the year, and Tesla owner Elon Musk has already gotten into financial trouble! As per Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Elon Musk has already lost $58.5 billion in 2022. In addition to it, an investor sued the business magnate for $258 billion!
A litigant who goes by the name of Keith Johnson has accused Elon Musk of running a “Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme.” Not only did he sue Musk, but also his companies Tesla and SpaceX. Elon Musk has been an avid supporter of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The face value of the currency skyrocketed after Elon Musk’s mention of the currency at SNL.
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“Dogecoin Had No Value Yet Promoted To Profit From Its Trading”: Elon Musk Is Called A Manipulator
The software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin in 2013. The intention was to create a satirical prototype of Bitcoin. As early as 2021, Elon Musk had his first promotional tweet to promote the currency. He tweeted, “Doge barking at the moon,” and the value increased to $0.45. The plaintiff Keith Johnson has filed a complaint against Elon Musk in the federal court in Manhattan.
He claimed that he lost all his money due to his investment in Dogecoin. Keith alleged the electric car and space tourism company of “racketeering” and promoting the currency for its price to soar only to plummet. The plaintiff called himself an “American citizen who was defrauded by Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme.”
As per the complaint, “Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading. Musk used his pedestal as World’s Richest Man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.”
The plaintiff also mentioned that the inception of the sale of the Dogecoin began when Elon Musk appeared as a financial adviser on a Weekend Update Segment called ‘Dogecoin, a Hustle.’ As per his estimates, the investors have lost $86 million.
Johnson expects the South African billionaire pays the compensatory price of the same amount, and additional damages worth $178 million. He appealed for declaring Dogecoin trading as gambling. There were several instances where the SpaceX CEO promoted Dogecoin. In one such instance, he took it to his favorite micro-blogging app to promote the currency over Ethereum.
Musk replied to a story on Twitter that declared high transactional prices make Ethereum unsuitable for micro-investors. Elon claimed that Dogecoins are suitable for decentralized financing. In January, he also declared that his electric car company, Tesla will accept Shiba Inu cryptocurrency as a payment method for its merchandise.
Johnson compared the cryptocurrency to a pyramid scheme because of its lack of intrinsic value and no tangible assets. There is no upper limit to how many Dogecoins can be mined.
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