YouTuber Bitboy Ordered to Appear in Court to Face Lawyer’s Harassment Claims

Crypto influencer Ben “Bitboy” Armstrong has been ordered to look earlier than a Miami courtroom subsequent week to iron out allegations of harassment directed at class motion legal professional Adam Moskowitz and his regulation agency.

Armstrong was named as a defendant in a category motion lawsuit final month, co-led by Moskowitz and legal professional David Boies. The lawsuit alleges a number of on-line influencers solicited the sale of unregistered securities in selling the defunct cryptocurrency alternate FTX and seeks over $1 billion in damages.

Armstrong declined to touch upon his skill to attend the listening to in individual, which is scheduled for April 20. However the influencer informed Decrypt he anticipates the chance to “stare these scammers within the eyes,” referring to members of the Moskowitz’s Legislation Agency.

“They are going to be handled, and this isn’t going to end up for them like they hope,” Armstrong stated by way of a Twitter message. “As soon as once more, the Moskowitz Legislation Agency has proven they’ll blatantly lie and make up false allegations in try of getting consideration.”

Moskowitz informed Decrypt that he and his regulation agency are “extraordinarily appreciative” of the courtroom’s determination to quickly tackle the matter.

When the lawsuit first appeared final month, Armstrong claimed he’d by no means acquired a greenback from FTX and that he plans on submitting a countersuit. And since then, Armstrong has come out swinging in opposition to Moskowitz and his regulation agency on Twitter.

However Armstrong’s alleged harassment isn’t restricted to simply an ongoing Twitter tirade, in keeping with courtroom paperwork filed final week.

Requesting Armstrong be ordered to look earlier than a Florida courtroom, Moskowitz alleged Armstrong has made every day violent threats in the direction of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs and counsel that embrace each telephone calls and emails.

Armstrong himself has shared a few of these emails, in keeping with claims he’s made on social media, the place Armstrong has referred to as the legal professional each a “pussy” and a “bitch.”

In a single telephone name, Armstrong allegedly stated the house addresses of Moskowitz and his colleagues are actively being circulated on the social media web site Reddit, prompting security issues on behalf of the lawyer.

“There’s some loopy folks on the market that can comply with loopy recommendation, even when it’s in a roundabout way from the individual himself,” Moskowitz informed Decrypt final week, including that his largest concern is what considered one of Armstrong’s hundreds of thousands of followers could possibly be compelled to do.

Moreover, Moskowitz informed Decrypt that Armstrong’s conduct is in contrast to something the legal professional has skilled in his decades-long regulation profession that spans the submitting of 1000’s of sophistication motion lawsuits. He additionally described his habits as “night time and day” in comparison with different influencers named within the go well with.

Whereas Armstrong often is the most vocal defendant included within the lawsuit, the grievance named different outstanding YouTuber stars, akin to Graham Stephan, Kevin Paffrath, Jaspreet Singh, Andrei Jikh, ​​Brian Jung, Jeremy Lefebvre, and Tom Nash—creators with hundreds of thousands of followers mixed.

Much like the quite a few celebrities that promoted the now-defunct alternate, the lawsuit claims that FTX couldn’t have grow to be such a profitable enterprise with out outstanding voices that contributed to the picture surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto empire.

“FTX couldn’t have arisen to such nice heights with out the large influence of those Influencers,” the lawsuit’s grievance states, claiming they “hyped the Misleading FTX Platform for undisclosed funds starting from tens of 1000’s of {dollars} to multimillion greenback bribes.”

FTX was one of the fashionable locations to commerce crypto when the alternate collapsed abruptly final November, dragging down the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum because the agency went underneath, and tarnishing the popularity of the digital belongings business.

The enterprise crumbled swiftly after a steep drop within the alternate’s native token FTT triggered a run on the alternate and compelled the corporate to confess it didn’t maintain one-to-one reserves of buyer belongings.

The disgraced crypto CEO was later arrested within the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the U.S., the place he’s been hit with a litany of economic crimes together with fraud. He has since been charged with extra crimes associated to allegedly illicit political donations. 

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not responsible to the now 13 expenses levied in opposition to him. In the meantime, a few of his closest enterprise allies have agreed to cooperate with investigations into the alternate’s collapse and pleaded responsible to expenses themselves.

The alternate’s chapter case is ongoing and Bankman-Fried’s legal trial is ready to happen in October. And because the scope of Bankman-Fried’s alleged fraud continues to develop, these related to the defunct alternate will probably proceed to face scrutiny as numerous buyers which were burned search some type of reprieve.