Billionaire Elon Musk is reportedly denying owning Dogecoin (DOGE) in a lawsuit that alleges he manipulated the price of the meme asset.
In a letter reportedly reviewed by the New York Post, Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, says that the plaintiffs’ allegations about his client owning a Dogecoin wallet are incorrect and baseless.
“You specifically allege, without basis, that the following wallets ‘belong’ to Defendants. You are wrong.”
Musk, a longtime proponent of the dog-themed memecoin, was originally sued in June 2022 by a group of disgruntled DOGE owners who claim that their financial losses were due to Musk manipulating the price of the digital asset.
Earlier this month, the plaintiffs sought to amend their complaint, accusing Musk of using Twitter posts, his appearance on the show “Saturday Night Live” and other methods such as paying influencers to promote DOGE so he could profit from its price rising.
They also claim that Musk sold about $124 million worth of the memecoin after its price skyrocketed 30% following his decision to temporarily change Twitter’s iconic blue bird logo to that of Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu dog.
In the filing, the defendants say that Musk’s “deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation and insider trading” allowed him to deceive investors and promote himself and his businesses.
However, in the letter, Spiro says the only evidence presented toward the notion that the wallets belong to Musk is circumstantial.
“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.”
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