Elon Musk was sued in a proposed class action on Tuesday by registered voters who signed his petition to support the constitution for a chance to win his $1m-a-day giveaway, and now claim it was a fraud.
The complaint, filed by the Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty in federal court, said Musk and his America Pac organization falsely induced voters to sign a petition by claiming they would choose winners by chance. In fact, members of the Pac selected the winners, the suit alleges. Musk’s own attorneys said in court that the sweepstakes’ results were not random; they disclosed that the winners were chosen to be spokespeople for the group.
“The $1m recipients are not chosen by chance,” Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk, said during a hearing in Pennsylvania. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1m recipient today and tomorrow.” Musk, meanwhile, said at a campaign rally that his Pac would be “awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition”.
McAferty also said the defendants had profited from the giveaway by driving traffic and attention to Musk’s X social media platform, and by collecting personal information such as her name, address and phone number that they could sell. A lawyer for Musk and lawyers for McAferty did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint.
McAferty sued a day after a Philadelphia judge denied a request by that city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, to end the giveaway, which Krasner called an illegal lottery. That ruling was largely symbolic because Musk has no plans to give out more money following the US presidential election.
The world’s richest person opened the giveaway to voters in seven battleground states who signed a petition to support free speech and gun rights. Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks at least $5m in damages for everyone who signed.
Musk has supported Donald Trump in the presidential race against Kamala Harris and given upwards of $100m via America Pac.
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