Elon Musk (pix) was sued for US$258 billion (RM1.13 trillion) yesterday by a Dogecoin investor who accused him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, plaintiff Keith Johnson accused Musk, electric car company Tesla Inc and space tourism company SpaceX of racketeering for touting Dogecoin and driving up its price, only to then let the price tumble.

Musk is CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX.

“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.”

The complaint also aggregates comments from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others questioning the value of cryptocurrency.

Tesla, SpaceX and a lawyer for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A lawyer for Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on what specific evidence his client has or expects to have that proves Dogecoin is worthless and the defendants ran a pyramid scheme.

Johnson is seeking US$86 billion in damages, representing the decline in Dogecoin's market value since May 2021, and wants it tripled.

He also wants to block Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin and a judge to declare that trading Dogecoin is gambling under federal and New York law.

The complaint said Dogecoin’s selloff began around the time Musk hosted the NBC show Saturday Night Live and, playing a fictitious financial expert on a Weekend Update segment, called Dogecoin “a hustle”.

Tesla in February 2021 said it had bought US$1.5 billion of bitcoin and for a short time accepted it as payment for vehicles.

Dogecoin traded at about 5.8 cents yesterday, down from its May 2021 peak of about 74 cents.

In a separate development, Musk pitched a vision yesterday to Twitter staff of a one-billion-user platform, but was hazy on potential layoffs, free speech limits and what’s next in his chaotic buyout bid.

He talked of letting people say pretty much whatever they want on Twitter while at the same time keeping it a friendly place that users enjoy visiting.

While fielding questions in his first meeting with staffers, Musk offered no updates on whether he will go through with a proposed US$44 billion takeover deal which he himself has called into doubt.

A transcript of the employees-only virtual meeting posted at website Recode indicated Musk professed “love” for Twitter, joking that while some people express themselves with hairstyles he does so on the global messaging stage.

Musk said he wants to have “at least a billion people on Twitter” in what would be massive growth for a platform that has about 229 million now.

Musk told Twitter employees he favours moderate political positions, but that users should be able to say outrageous things.

He qualified that by saying that freedom of speech doesn't mean an intrinsic freedom for comments to reach far and wide. He has already made comments on how he'd run the platform – including lifting Donald Trump’s ban.

“People should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law, but then that doesn’t get amplified,“ Musk said, according to the transcript.

“We have to strike this balance of allowing people to say what they want to say but also make people comfortable on Twitter, or they simply won’t use it.”

Musk answered a question about possible layoffs by saying the company “needs to get healthy” when it comes to its financial situation.

“Anyone who’s obviously a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about,” Musk told Twitter workers.

He endorsed advertising and subscriptions as ways to make money at Twitter, saying ads should be entertaining as well as legitimate.

Musk talked anew about making money at Twitter by charging to verify identities of those behind accounts, then making verification a factor in which tweets get higher ranking at the platform.

Regarding Twitter's policy of letting people work from home, Musk said it would be an option only for those proven to be exceptional at their jobs.

Musk touched on his Tesla and SpaceX endeavours during the meeting, talking of sustainable energy and extending the “scope, scale and lifespan of consciousness as we know it”. – Reuters, AFP