Tesla CEO, Elon Musk and companies sued for $258bn over alleged Dogecoin ‘pyramid scheme’

Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Tesla have been sued for $258 billion by one Keith Johnson who claims that the companies and their owner illegally inflated the price of Dogecoin, (a cryptocurrency) by constituting an illegal racketeering enterprise.

According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit read, “an American citizen was defrauded out of money by defendants’ Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme. The Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all,”

The action brought against the billionaire and his companies is actually a class action as the plaintiff is suing for himself and on behalf of people who have lost money trading in Dogecoin since April 2019.

In addition, the Plaintiff is also demanding for $86 billion in damages, plus triple damages of $172 billion, as well as an order blocking Musk and the companies from promoting Dogecoin, and declaring that Dogecoin trading constitutes gambling under Law.

The Billionaire and his team of counsel are yet to respond to the lawsuit.

Other lawsuits filed against the billionaire

• This would not be the first time the billionaire or any of his companies would be facing a lawsuit. At least 160 lawsuits have been filed against Tesla alone. The billionaire on his own has also been sued for his tweets. He has also been sued by Tesla shareholders in the Solar city case.
• Two former Tesla security employees, Karl Hansen and Sean Gouthro filed whistleblower complaints via the law firm Meissner Associates to the SEC. They claimed, among other things, that Tesla spied on workers, and covered up theft and narcotics trafficking at its battery plant in Sparks, Nevada.
• A former employee, Marcus Vaughn, pursued a class-action lawsuit against Tesla in California alleging that the company ignored black employees’ reports of rampant racism.
• The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint in August 2018 accusing Musk of violating labour laws with a tweet on May 20 that employees wouldn’t have stock options if they formed a union.
• Musk was sued by spelunker Verne Unsworth, whom Musk claimed without evidence was a paedophile and child rapist.
• In addition, there are also at least 43 workers’ rights cases, 14 deposit theft cases, and 20 vendor and government non-payment cases filed against Tesla since it went public in 2010.