The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, was embroiled in two major controversies this week. On the one hand, a group of SpaceX employees who circulated an open letter criticizing him was fired from the company. And on the other hand, it was in the midst of a pyramid fraud allegation for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

It emerged from a New York Times article that the letter criticized Musk’s public behavior and claimed that he was a distraction for SpaceX employees and that did not lead to a positive image of the company among the public.

“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter reads in part, reports the New York Times. “As our CEO and foremost spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX: cEvery tweet Elon sends is a de facto public statement from the company.“.

Musk has long been a controversial figure, with actions like smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan show or being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for tweets that affected his companies’ share prices.

But in recent months, public opinion about him seems to have shifted from amiable scoundrel to something more troubling. He was accused by a flight attendant of sexual harassment for which SpaceX paid a settlement $ 250,000, despite Musk denying it and a Tesla investor suing him for creating a “toxic” workplace that includes racial profiling and harassment.

With Musk’s offer to buy Twitter, his tweets garnered even more attention, responding to tweets critical of Twitter employees and sparking a wave of online attacks against them.

In the SpaceX employee open letter, as described by the Times, employees say the company should condemn this “malicious Twitter behavior” and that “SpaceX must quickly and explicitly part with Elon’s personal branding.”

The letter was first circulated on Wednesday this week, and the Times reported that several employees who organized and distributed the letter were fired Thursday afternoon. It has since emerged that at least five employees have been laid off in connection with the letter, as reported by Reuters.

Sued by Dogecoin

An investor in dogecoin, a cryptocurrency originally created as a joke but whose value has risen and decreased as promoted by Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit Thursday over 258 billion dollars against the billionaire and his companies Tesla and SpaceX.

Keith Johnson, who claims he lost money after investing in dogecoin, described himself as a “US citizen who was scammed” by what he called a “Dogecoin cryptocurrency scheme”.

Johnson demands that his complaint, filed in a New York court, be classified as a class action action on behalf of those who have suffered losses by investing in dogecoin since 2019.

Since Musk began promoting the virtual currency, investors have lost about $ 86 billion, Johnson estimates. His wish is that Musk repay the investors this sum, as well as pay double the damages: another 172,000 million.

The creators of dogecoin, invented in 2013, claim it was intended as an ironic response to two great Internet phenomena: cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and a meme image of a Shiba Inu dog.

The price of the dogecoin has been trading in tenths of cents for most of its existence. But its value jumped in early 2021, climbing to $ 0.73 in May of that year, in the midst of a shopping spree around the GameStop saga and after humorous messages about it from Musk. On Thursday, however, it was worth less than six cents.

Johnson said he believes Musk has increased “Dogecoin’s price, market cap and trading volume” through his promotion. For example, he included tweets from Musk, the richest man in the world who has more than 98 million followers on Twitter, including one who promises SpaceX “I’d put a Dogecoin on the moon itself.”

Johnson named Tesla, a Musk-owned electric car maker, in the lawsuit for accepting dogecoin as payment for certain derivatives. SpaceX was also included for naming one of its satellites doge.

Johnson linked cryptocurrency to a pyramid scheme, as it has no intrinsic value and is not a product. It is also not backed by a tangible asset and the number of “coins” is unlimited.

The demands of investors who feel deceived by the promises of the virtual currency are on the rise in the United States.

With information from AFP