Musk’s lawyer withdraws from $258B Dogecoin lawsuit.
An attorney who was part of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO and founder Elon Musk’s legal team for less than a year has filed a motion to withdraw counsel in federal court regarding Musk’s Dogecoin (DOGE) case. Adam Gabor Mehes, the attorney in question, was directly involved in various cases. The departure of Mehes comes after the legal team added another attorney, Allison Huebert, a former associate at the Quin Emanuel firm headquartered in Los Angeles, according to a court filing on Friday.
The Case Against Musk
Musk has been accused of manipulating the Dogecoin market for personal gain, leading to a $258 billion lawsuit against him. Dogecoin was initially designed as a Bitcoin taunt in 2013, but eventually became one of the most popular crypto assets. Much of the coin’s growth and popularity could arguably be attributed to Musk, who repeatedly posted Twitter memes about DOGE. In many cases, the coin’s price rose following these tweets.
The lawsuit alleges that Musk used Dogecoin as a pump-and-dump scheme to make money. An amended suit filed in a Manhattan federal court on June 7 accused Musk of earning $95 million from the alleged scheme. The complainants allege that Musk deliberately used his tweets to manipulate the market for personal gain, and 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%.
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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.
Spencer promised to fight the case in court and “not the media,” according to the New York Post. He also expressed confidence in the success of the case.
