X claims users exploited its creator fund with fake Bitcoin news bots

X, formerly Twitter, has filed a lawsuit in the UK High Court against Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa, accusing them of operating a network of nine fake Bitcoin news accounts to manipulate the platform’s creator fund. The scheme allegedly generated at least £207,000 ($277,000) in disputed payouts by flooding the platform with identical, unverified financial headlines within seconds of one another. The accounts, including @Vivek4real_ and @Bitcoin_Teddy, used coordinated engagement tactics—likes, replies, and reposts—to artificially inflate perceived activity, the lawsuit states. Most posts made unsubstantiated claims, such as falsely alleging Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon was pushing a crypto bill or that Citibank had purchased $12.6 million in Bitcoin, to attract attention. The defendants allegedly expanded the operation by offering paid engagement services, soliciting third parties to buy additional high-follower accounts. Evidence suggests the accounts shared Stripe payment details, login identifiers, and devices, with some payment links registered under fictitious names, such as ‘Stefan Mann,’ while linked bank accounts and emails belonged to Sen. X terminated the accounts on August 18, citing coordinated revenue-sharing fraud and platform manipulation. The platform is seeking repayment of the creator fund payouts, as well as damages for alleged fraud and conspiracy. Costs for further investigations and remediation remain unquantified.