By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of manipulating dogecoin is coming to an end.
Cryptocurrency investors who said the world's richest person and his electric car company Tesla (NASDAQ committed fraud and insider trading are withdrawing their appeal against the dismissal of their case on August 29.
They are also withdrawing an attempt to sanction Musk's lawyers for allegedly interfering with the appeal, including demanding payment of his steep legal fees.
Meanwhile, Musk and Tesla withdrew their motion to sanction the investors' lawyer for allegedly pursuing a “frivolous” case with ever-changing legal theories to “extort a quick handout.”
A stipulation dismissing both sides' appeal and motions was filed Thursday night in federal court in Manhattan. It requires approval from U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Lawyers for the investors and Musk did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.
Investors accused Musk of using twitter posts, an appearance on NBC's “Saturday Night Live” and other tricks to trade dogecoin at their expense, even timing the transactions with Musk's public statements and activities.
In the Aug. 29 firing, Hellerstein said reasonable investors could not prove securities fraud based on Musk's tweets, including that dogecoin was the future currency of Earth and his company SpaceX could take it to the moon.
The judge also said he did not understand allegations related to market manipulation and insider trading by investors.
Investors originally asked for $258 billion and revised their demand four times in two years.
Musk bought twitter in 2022 and renamed it x.
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On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk and the biotech company's founder, Vivek Ramaswany, to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, whose acronym echoes the name dogecoin.
The case is Gorog et al v. Musk et al, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.
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