X has sued Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa in London's High Court of Justice, alleging they operated a network of fake bitcoin news accounts to fraudulently collect creator fund payouts. The lawsuit seeks repayment of at least £207,000 ($277,000) in disputed earnings, plus additional damages for fraud and conspiracy.
According to X's complaint, the nine accounts—@Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, @PolyBackTest, @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin and @Laserlump—posted nearly identical, unverified financial headlines that appeared seconds apart. The posts made unsubstantiated claims involving major financial institutions, including allegations that Goldman Sachs' CEO was pushing a crypto bill and that Citibank had purchased $12.6 million in bitcoin.
The defendants allegedly coordinated engagement across accounts through likes, replies, and reposts to create an appearance of organic interest. X's investigation also found that the accounts received payments through shared Stripe accounts with mismatched names and were linked by shared devices and login identifiers, suggesting coordinated operation.
The lawsuit alleges that @Vivek4real_ expanded the scheme by offering paid engagement and manipulation services to third parties, including soliciting the purchase of additional high-follower accounts. X terminated all linked accounts on August 18 on grounds of coordinated revenue sharing fraud and platform manipulation. The platform is being represented by law firm Lewis Silkin LLP.
