Elon Musk, Tesla win dismissal of lawsuit claiming they rigged dogecoin
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Aug 29 (Reuters) -Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company Tesla TSLA.O won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by hyping the cryptocurrency dogecoin and conducting insider trading, causing billions of dollars of losses.
The decision was issued on Thursday night by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan.
Investors accused Musk of using Twitter posts, a 2021 appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and other publicity stunts to trade profitably at their expense through several dogecoin wallets that he or Tesla controlled.
According to the investors, Musk deliberately drove up dogecoin's price more than 36,000% over two years and then let it crash, with he and Tesla often timing trades to Musk's public statements and activities concerning dogecoin.
Investors said this included when Musk sold dogecoin in April 2023 after he replaced the blue bird logo of Twitter, now known as X, with dogecoin's Shiba Inu dog logo, causing dogecoin's price to rise 30%.
In seeking a dismissal, Musk's lawyers said the plaintiffs still had no case despite filing five versions of their lawsuit, which originally sought $258 billion, over two years.
The lawyers said there was nothing wrong with Musk's "innocuous and often silly tweets" about dogecoin, and no proof either that Musk owned two wallets where suspicious trading was conducted, or that he or Tesla ever sold dogecoin.
On "Saturday Night Live," Musk called dogecoin a "hustle" while playing a fictitious financial expert on a segment of "Weekend Update."
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
