Elon Musk And His Companies Get Further Entangled In Dogecoin Racketeering Lawsuit

The lawsuit against Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk that accuses him and his electric car company of racketeering has reportedly been expanded.

What Happened: The $258 billion lawsuit has been expanded with the addition of seven new investor plaintiffs and six new defendants including his tunnel construction firm Boring Co. Previously, SpaceX, a space exploration firm that Musk heads, was also named, reported Reuters.

The Dogecoin Foundation has also been added to the list of the new defendants in the case listed as Johnson et al v. Musk et al in the U.S. District Court of Southern District of New York, according to Reuters.

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Why It Matters: The case was filed by a person named Keith Johnson in June amid a crash in the price of cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin.

Johnson has sought $86 billion in damages and an additional $172 billion in triple damages along with an injunction barring Musk and the companies from marketing DOGE and declaring the cryptocurrency illegal under U.S. and New York law.

The principal plaintiff claimed that the defendants “profited tens of billions of dollars” at the expense of Dogecoin investors while being aware that the memecoin lacked intrinsic value and its value was based “solely on marketing.”

“Dogecoin is not a currency, stock or security, It’s not backed by gold, other precious metal, or anything at all. You can’t eat it, grow it, or wear it,” said the complainant. 

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed on June 16, Musk said he will “keep supporting Dogecoin.”

Price Action: At the time of writing, over 24-hours, Dogecoin traded 0.3% lower at $0.06, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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