Ben Armstrong, often known as ‘BitBoy Crypto’, missed a court docket look ordered by a federal Justice of the Peace decide in response to the YouTuber’s alleged harassment of counsel in a lawsuit involving a number of crypto influencers.
Decide Melissa Damian had ordered Armstrong and his counsel to look on April 20 to handle the YouTuber’s “harassment in the direction of plaintiffs’ counsel.” Nonetheless, Armstrong overtly mocked the order on social media, as an alternative tweeting photos of himself on a seashore within the Bahamas.
I’m presupposed to be in court docket right now.
I’m not. Why?
As a result of I don’t give AF
RECKLESSNESS SPONSORED BY https://t.co/RtFomcGS5v pic.twitter.com/t9XqsNd6da
— Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto) April 20, 2023
In accordance with numerous studies, Decide Damian warned Armstrong’s legal professional — who was in attendance, as ordered — that she would concern a warrant for the YouTuber’s arrest if he failed to look by April 24. The harassment case in opposition to Armstrong moved ahead with out him because the decide reportedly referred the matter to the FBI.
People affected by the collapse of FTX filed a class-action lawsuit in opposition to Armstrong and several other different YouTubers in March for allegedly selling fraud via the trade “with out disclosing compensation.” Moskowitz, the lead legal professional representing the plaintiffs in that case, claimed that Armstrong harassed the authorized workforce with “infinite cellphone calls, tweets and emails,” voicemails “filled with vulgarities,” and social media posts suggesting threats.
Amid court docket proceedings on April 20, the YouTuber continued to mock the harassment case and Moskowitz. Nonetheless, he mentioned that he was “not flying by the seat of [his] pants,” hinting that his absence from court docket could have been with the recommendation of counsel. He reportedly provided via counsel to look earlier than the decide in Might.
As a part of the decide’s order on April 20, Armstrong will reportedly be barred from tweeting about Moskowitz and the plaintiffs within the case. He beforehand in contrast the lawyer to an ambulance chaser and a pig along with largely dismissing the premise of the lawsuit. Cointelegraph reached out to Moskowitz for remark, however didn’t obtain a response on the time of publication.
Associated: A number of Silvergate lawsuits over alleged FTX ties mixed by decide
A crypto influencer with greater than 1 million followers on Twitter and 1.4 million YouTube subscribers, Armstrong is not any stranger to on-line controversy. He has insulted high-profile figures together with European Central Financial institution president Christine Lagarde and U.S. Securities and Trade Fee chair Gary Gensler along with others affecting coverage within the area.
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