More Defendants Named in $258 Billion Dogecoin Lawsuit against Elon Musk

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas

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Ruholamin Haqshanas is a contributing crypto writer for CryptoNews. He is a crypto and finance journalist with over four years of experience. Ruholamin has been featured in several high-profile crypto...

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June 26, 2023

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The class action suit filed accusing tech billionaire and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, of running a pyramid scheme to promote Dogecoin (DOGE) has been amended this week to include more defendants and plaintiffs. 

According to a court filing on the case, seven new disgruntled investors have joined the lawsuit, while six more defendants have been added to the list of the accused. Among these newly named defendants are Musk’s tunnel construction start-up The Boring Company, and the creators of the dog-themed memecoin Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. 

The plaintiffs also named Dogecoin-related entities including the Dogecoin Foundation and Dogecoin Developers, as well as programmer Ross Nicholl, and popular Dogecoin influence Matt Wallace. This is in addition to the former defendants namely Elon Musk, along with his companies SpaceX and Tesla. 

The filing reveals that electronic summonses have been sent to all the named defendants. Meanwhile, the new plaintiffs include Colby Gorog, James Duong, Fernando Uriza, Joshua Flint, Jessica Calkins, Louis Robinson, and Michael Twomey. 

The case was first filed in June by Keith Johnson and is docketed as Johnson et al v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037. The New England-resident electrician says he is seeking damages of $258 billion from Musk and his companies on behalf of investors who lost money by investing in DOGE since April 2019. 

“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,” Johnson said in his complaint charging Musk of racketeering. 

The damages he is asking for are calculated by tripping the $86 billion all-time high market capitalization that DOGE reached in May 2021 when Elon Musk appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live Show to talk about Dogecoin. 

Musk continues to support Dogecoin despite price crash

Despite the lawsuit, Musk has not withdrawn his support of the Dogecoin blockchain network. He stands by his opinion that the cryptocurrency that was created as a joke is likely to become the currency of the internet ahead of Bitcoin. 

While his promotion of Dogecoin on social media has been less frequent, his companies have been collaborating with the blockchain to see DOGE gain more adoption. 

Meanwhile, the price of DOGE continues to remain a far cry from its all-time high price of $0.75. DOGE is trading at around $0.063 on the day per data from CryptoRank. At this price, about 44% of wallets holding DOGE are underwater according to on-chain data provided by IntoTheBlock.