Elon Musk sued for $258 billion for running a Dogecoin crypto pyramid scheme; now he’s seeking to throw out the lawsuit

“I will eat a happy meal on TV if Mcdonald’s accepts Dogecoin,” Elon Musk said back in January 2022. For months, Musk has been promoting Dogecoin. Calling it people’s coin, Musk once told TMZ in an interview that Dogecoin could be the future of cryptocurrency. Now those statements may be coming back to haunt him.

On Friday, Musk asked a judge in Manhattan federal court to throw out a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, Reuters reported. Responding to the lawsuit, lawyers representing Musk and his electric car company Tesla said in a filing that the lawsuit by Dogecoin investors a “fanciful work of fiction” over Musk’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about Dogecoin.

The lawyers said the investors never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone or what risks he concealed, and that his statements such as “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” were too vague to support a fraud claim.

“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion,” Musk’s lawyers said. “This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint.”

It all started back in June 2022 when Musk was sued for $258 billion by a Dogecoin investor who accused the billionaire of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, his electric car company Tesla, and space company SpaceX of racketeering for touting Dogecoin and driving up its price, only to then let the price tumble. It’s unclear if the lawsuit prompted Musk to make the latest comment about his support for Dogecoin.

“Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading,” the complaint said. “Musk used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.”

Dogecoin started as a joke in December 2013 based on the popular “doge” meme represented by a Shiba Inu dog as its logo, literally taken from the “Doge” meme.

We wrote about Musk and Dogecoin back in January after Musk continued his relentless promotion of Dogecoin saying that he would eat a happy meal on TV if Mcdonald’s accepted Dogecoin as payment.  “I will eat a happy meal on tv if @McDonalds accepts Dogecoin,” Musk tweeted. Mcdonald’s has yet to take Musk up on the challenge.

I will eat a happy meal on tv if @McDonalds accepts Dogecoin

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2022

Some on social media as gone as far as calling Musk “The DogeFather,” a reference to the GodFather movie.