Elon Musk Dogecoin debacle: The ‘Dogefather’ sued for $258bn

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was sued for $258 billion by a Dogecoin investor on Thursday, alleging him of operating a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency.

Plaintiff Keith Johnson filed a case in federal court in Manhattan accusing Musk, electric vehicle firm Tesla Inc, and space tourism company SpaceX of racketeering for promoting Dogecoin and pushing up its price, only to see it plummet.

Plaintiff Keith Johnson's Statement

"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."

According to the complaint, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and others have questioned the worth of Bitcoin. Tesla, SpaceX, and Musk's lawyer did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

Johnson's lawyer did not reply to requests for comment on what proof his client has or expects to have that indicates the dog focused meme coins worthless, and the defendants conducted a pyramid scheme.

Johnson is claiming $86 billion in damages, which he claims represents the fall in Dogecoin's market value since May 2021 and wants it tripled. He also demanded Elon Musk and his firms be barred from marketing Dogecoin, and a judge to decide that trading Dogecoin is illegal under federal and New York law.

According to the lawsuit, the selloff of Dogecoin began around the time Musk presented the NBC show ‘Saturday Night Live’ and, playing a fictitious financial expert on a ‘Weekend Update’ segment, called cryptocurrency "a hustle." Tesla said in February 2021 that it had purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin and had temporarily accepted it as payment for vehicles.

Dogecoin was trading at around 5.8 cents on Thursday, down from its top of almost 74 cents in May 2021.