Elon Musk's Dogecoin manipulation lawsuit against Tesla

Tesla's CEO, Tesla, manipulated the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, causing it to cost them billions of dollars.

Investors said on Wednesday that Musk used Twitter posts, paid online influencers, his 2021 appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live and other publicity stunts to trade profitably at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets that he or Tesla controls.

Investors said this included when Musk sold the Blue Bird logo of Twitter on April after he replaced Twitter's blue bird logo with Dogecoin s shiba inu dog logo, leading to a 30% jump in Dogecoin's price.

A deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation and insider trading enabled Musk to defraud investors and promote himself and his companies, the filing said.

In October, Musk bought Twitter. SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft manufacturer, and Tesla, a electric carmaker, are among the companies he manages.

Alex Spiro, Tesla's lawyer, declined to comment. The lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the suit.

Investors have accused Musk of deliberately driving up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000% over two years and then letting it crash.

In a suit that began last June, they added their latest accusations in a proposed third amended complaint.

Musk and Tesla had asked for a dismissal of the second amendment in March, calling it a fanciful work of fiction and on May 26 said another amendment was unjustified.

In a Wednesday order, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he would likely allow the third amended complaint to be granted, saying the defendants would not likely be prejudiced.

Hellerstein also granted the investors the request to dismiss the nonprofit Dogecoin Foundation as a defendant. The dismissal was the appropriate result, Levine said.