One of Musk’s lawyers has withdrawn from the Dogecoin case for unknown reasons, not long after the legal team onboarded another attorney.
An attorney attached to Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO and founder Elon Musk’s Dogecoin (DOGE) case has filed a motion to withdraw counsel in federal court. The attorney, Adam Gabor Mehes, has been a major part of Musk’s legal team for less than a year and was directly involved in various cases.
The attorney’s departure comes after a court filing on Friday in which the legal team added another attorney, Allison Huebert, a former associate at the Quin Emanuel firm headquartered in Los Angeles.
The Case Against Musk
Musk has been at the center of a lawsuit accusing the billionaire of manipulating the Dogecoin market to his benefit. Originally designed as a Bitcoin taunt in 2013, Dogecoin eventually became one of the most popular crypto assets. Much of the coin’s growth and popularity arguably came from Musk, who repeatedly posted Twitter memes about DOGE. In many cases, the coin’s price rose following these tweets.
The $258 billion lawsuit has accused Musk of using Dogecoin as a pump-and-dump scheme to make money. In an amended suit filed in a Manhattan federal court on June 7, Musk was accused of earning $95 million from the alleged scheme.
The case alleges that Musk deliberately used his tweets to manipulate the market for personal gain. The complainants also connected Dogecoin wallets allegedly in Musk’s control to specific transactions between the 3rd and 6th of April. During this time, Twitter used the Dogecoin Shiba Inu logo instead of its blue bird. The suit alleges that Musk, who is Twitter’s CEO, took this decision as part of his attempts to manipulate DOGE. Notably, DOGE jumped 30% to $0.10109 from $0.07705 after Twitter temporarily replaced its logo.
Musk was also accused of using his appearance on the Saturday Night Live comedy show to pump DOGE’s price. Musk confirmed his appearance on the show in 2021 and asked his followers for skit ideas, with many suggesting something connected to DOGE. Following his “Definitely” response to one such suggestion, The price of DOGE hit $0.4, rising 10%.
Musk’s Attorney Fires Hot in Dogecoin Case
In a letter obtained by the New York Post, Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro hit Evan Spencer, the plaintiff’s attorney, with a heavy rebuttal. According to Spiro, Spencer alleged “without basis” that certain wallets that may have made some profit off Dogecoin belong to Elon Musk. Spiro said:
“The sole basis for your claim is that these wallets sold Dogecoin at a time when, according to the Third Amended Complaint, prices were up.”
The amended complaint concluded that Musk owned the wallet because of a February 2021 tweet. In the tweet, according to the Post, Musk said he bought 28.061971 DOGE. The complaint connects one of the wallets to Musk, especially as the amount purchased references Musk’s date of birth – June 28, 1971.
Speaking to the New York Post, Spencer promised to fight the case in court and “not the media.” According to him, the prosecution is “more confident than ever” about the success of the case.
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Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
Source: https://www.coinspeaker.com/musk-attorney-258b-dogecoin-lawsuit/