X has sued Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa in London, alleging that the two men operated a network of fake bitcoin news accounts to fraudulently collect at least 207,000 pounds, or about $277,000, from the platform’s creator fund.
The lawsuit identifies Sen and Sherpa as the alleged masterminds behind the operation. X is represented by law firm Lewis Silkin LLP. Beyond the disputed creator-fund payouts, the company said additional losses tied to investigation and remediation have not yet been quantified.
Nine accounts named in the lawsuit
The complaint lists nine accounts as part of the alleged network: @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, @PolyBackTest, @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin and @Laserlump.
According to the filing, those accounts circulated fake “breaking” bitcoin and finance headlines that often matched word for word and appeared on X within seconds of one another. X said the posts pushed unsubstantiated and unverified claims designed to attract broad attention by invoking major financial institutions and executives.
The lawsuit cites examples including claims that Goldman Sachs’ CEO was pushing a crypto bill and that Citibank had bought $12.6 million in bitcoin. X said those claims were unsupported and unverified.
Coordinated engagement allegedly used to inflate reach
X also alleges that accounts controlled by the defendants repeatedly liked, replied to and reposted the same content to create a false appearance of engagement. The company says that coordinated activity helped amplify the posts and generate payouts from the creator program.
The filing argues that the near-identical wording of the posts, combined with their tightly clustered posting times, showed a coordinated operation rather than separate news accounts acting independently.
@Vivek4real_ allegedly expanded the scheme
The lawsuit says the @Vivek4real_ account appeared to extend the operation by offering paid engagement and manipulation services to third parties, while also soliciting the purchase of additional high-follower accounts.
X cited a message in which Sen allegedly wrote to a third party: “Can we continue on another channel, please, as you haven’t enabled encrypted chat and I don’t want us to get in trouble for something X doesn’t allow. If you understand what I mean.”
Accounts were terminated on Aug. 18
X said it terminated all accounts linked to the network on Aug. 18 on grounds of “coordinated revenue sharing fraud and platform manipulation.”
The complaint also says the accounts received payments through shared Stripe accounts with mismatched names and were connected through shared devices and login identifiers.
In one example cited in the filing, a Stripe payment profile for one account was registered under the name “Stefan Mann,” while the linked bank account and email address were in Sen’s name. X says those payment and login links support its claim that the accounts were under common control.
X seeks repayment and damages
X is seeking repayment of the creator earnings along with damages tied to alleged fraud and conspiracy. The particulars of claim were signed by X Senior Legal Directors Diego de Lima Gualda and Adam Mehes.
According to CoinDesk, the case centers on X’s claim that the defendants did not earn creator revenue through legitimate content and genuine audience activity, but through a coordinated network of fake bitcoin news accounts and manipulated engagement.