Musk and Tesla Launch Offensive Against Dogecoin Plaintiffs’ Attorney
Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk are seeking Rule 11 sanctions against New York plaintiffs lawyer Evan Spencer for filing allegedly baseless insider trading accusations against the company. In June, Spencer filed a complaint accusing Musk and Tesla of reaping billions of dollars by selling off Dogecoin from crypto wallets after Musk promoted the coins in Twitter posts. However, a new sanctions motion claims that neither Musk nor Tesla owned the wallets mentioned in the complaint, and Spencer had reason to doubt their ownership even before filing the amended complaint. Defense lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan sent Spencer a letter stating that Musk and Tesla did not own the wallets and did not sell Dogecoin. Instead of withdrawing the suit, Spencer moved for Quinn Emanuel to be disqualified for a conflict of interest and for allegedly leaking the letter to the New York Post. Sanctions motions include sworn declarations showing that neither Musk nor Tesla owned the disputed wallets, and the motion asks for the dismissal of Spencer’s suit and for fees and costs to be awarded to Musk and Tesla. Spencer responded to Quinn Emanuel’s filing, claiming that the motion to disqualify Quinn Emanuel was “frivolous”. Musk and Tesla argue that ownership of the disputed wallets is crucial to Spencer’s insider trading allegations and that the declarations cast doubt on his complaint.
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