JAKARTA – The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, was sued for $258 billion (Rp 3820 trillion) on Thursday, June 16 by Dogecoin investors. It is this plaintiff who accuses him of running a pyramid scheme to support cryptocurrencies. The claim for losses exceeds the wealth of the richest person in the world by Rp. 3100 trillion.
In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, electric car company Tesla Inc and aerospace company SpaceX of extortion for touting Dogecoin and raising its price, only to then let the price fall.
"The defendant realized since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value and then promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trade," Johnson said in his allegation, as quoted by Reuters. "Musk uses his pedestal as the World's Richest Man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and entertainment."
The complaint also garnered comments from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and others who questioned the value of cryptocurrencies.
Tesla, SpaceX and Musk's own lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the allegations.
An attorney for Johnson also did not immediately respond to a request for comment about what specific evidence his client had or expected that could prove Dogecoin was worthless and that defendants, such as Musk, had run a pyramid scheme.
Johnson himself is seeking $86 billion in damages, representing the decline in Dogecoin's market value since May 2021, and wants it back three times over.
He also wants to block Musk and his company from promoting Dogecoin and ask a judge to declare trading Dogecoin gambling under federal and New York laws.
The allegation says the Dogecoin sell-off began around the time Musk was hosting the NBC show "Saturday Night Live and, playing a fictional financial expert on the segment, "Weekend Update," which Dogecoin called "the crowd."
Tesla in February 2021 said it had bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin and for a short time accepted it as payment for vehicles.
Dogecoin alone traded around 5.8 US cents on Thursday, June 16, down well from its May 2021 peak of around 74 cents.
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