One of the world’s wealthiest men and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, is facing a major legal complaint worth a total of $258 billion in what seems to be a racketeering scheme involving the crypto asset, Dogecoin, Bloomberg reports.
On June 16, 2022, a certain Keith Johnson filed the complaint in the Southern District Court of New York in Manhattan.
The complainant alleges that Musk, including two of his aforementioned companies, is part of a massive pyramid scheme that serves to manipulate the pricing of Dogecoin. Additionally, the plaintiff claims that the ploy entices people to consider the digital asset as legit and good for investment.
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In a court document, Johnson’s legal team states that Musk and company were artificially and illegally inflating the value of the Dogecoin and that they defrauded Johnson out of his money. The complainant also argues that the cryptocurrency has “no value at all,” per Bloomberg.
For compensation, Keith Johnson is asking $86 billion in damages in addition to some triple damages worth $172 billion for an overall cost of $258 billion.
Lastly, Johnson is also asking the court to block Musk from promoting Dogecoin and that all trading involving Dogecoin should be treated as gambling and therefore be regulated similarly.
Source: Bloomberg