Lawyers for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO have demanded that a Manhattan federal court dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed against him last year by a DOGE investor.
In June 2022, investor Keith Johnson accused Elon Musk of creating a fraudulent scheme using Dogecoin and falsely claiming that investments in DOGE are considered legal, although, according to the investor, this coin has no value .
The plaintiff demanded damages and monetary compensation from the billionaire, and also wished Musk to stop advertising the “dog” coin DOGE. The billionaire’s tweets have repeatedly pushed the Dogecoin price up. So, in May 2021, the DOGE coin rose by 25% when Musk called it “potentially promising.
” Musk’s lawyers called the lawsuit a bizarre fabrication. They explained that Musk’s dissemination of information about DOGE, including his tweets like “No highs, no lows, only Doge”, is too vague for Musk to be accused of fraud. Musk’s defense team described his tweets as harmless and rather goofy, trying to convince the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
“There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support or funny pictures about a legitimate cryptocurrency that still has a market capitalization of almost $10 billion,” the lawyers say.
Recall that at the beginning of last year, Tesla began testing payments in Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, after which it announced the official acceptance of payments in DOGE. In September, Tesla held sales of a collectible “cyber whistle”, accepting payment in DOGE.