Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Tesla, have been sued for $258 billion by a man named Keith Johnson, who claims the companies and their owner illegally inflated the price of Dogecoin (a cryptocurrency) by forming an illegal racketeering enterprise.
The lawsuit stated that “an American citizen was defrauded out of money by defendants’ Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme,” according to Bloomberg. “The defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value.”
The lawsuit filed against the billionaire and his companies is a class action, as the plaintiff is suing on behalf of himself and others who have lost money trading in Dogecoin since April 2019.
The lawsuit filed against the billionaire and his companies is a class action, as the plaintiff is suing on behalf of himself and others who have lost money trading in Dogecoin since April 2019.
Furthermore, the Plaintiff is seeking $86 billion in damages, as well as triple damages of $172 billion, as well as an order prohibiting Musk and the companies from promoting Dogecoin and declaring that Dogecoin trading is gambling under the law.
The Billionaire and his legal team have yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Additional lawsuits have been filed against the billionaire.
- This is not the first time the billionaire or any of his companies have been sued. Against Tesla alone, at least 160 lawsuits have been filed. The billionaire has also been sued for his tweets on his own. In the Solar City case, he has also been sued by Tesla shareholders.
- Karl Hansen and Sean Gouthro, two former Tesla security employees, filed whistleblower complaints with the SEC through the law firm Meissner Associates. They claimed that Tesla spied on employees and covered up theft and drug trafficking at its battery plant in Sparks, Nevada.
- Marcus Vaughn, a former Tesla employee, filed a class-action lawsuit against the company in California, alleging that the company ignored black employees’ reports of rampant racism.
- In August 2018, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Musk, accusing him of violating labor laws by tweeting on May 20 that employees would lose stock options if they formed a union.
- Musk was sued by spelunker Verne Unsworth, whom Musk accused of being a paedophile and child rapist without providing any evidence.
- In addition, since Tesla went public in 2010, at least 43 workers’ rights cases, 14 deposit theft cases, and 20 vendor and government non-payment cases have been filed against the company.
