X sues its own users for running a fake bitcoin news bot farm

X has launched legal action in London against two men, alleging they ran a coordinated network of fake bitcoin-news accounts designed to exploit the platform’s creator fund. The complaint, brought by law firm Lewis Silkin LLP on X’s behalf, identifies Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa as the alleged operators and seeks repayment of at least £207,000 plus damages for fraud and conspiracy. According to the claim, nine accounts posted near-identical, unverified “breaking” financial headlines within seconds of one another to manufacture apparent news coverage. Many of these posts reportedly made unsubstantiated claims involving major financial institutions, such as assertions about Goldman Sachs and Citibank, to attract attention. X says the network amplified those posts through coordinated likes, replies and reposts to create the appearance of genuine engagement. The complaint also alleges that the @Vivek4real_ account offered paid engagement and account-purchase services to third parties, and includes a cited message in which Sen purportedly asked to continue the discussion on an encrypted channel to avoid detection by X. The platform says it terminated all linked accounts on Aug. 18 for “coordinated revenue sharing fraud and platform manipulation.” X’s investigation found payment links to shared Stripe accounts with mismatched registration details — for example, one Stripe entry used the name “Stefan Mann” while the associated bank account and email were in Sen’s name — and shared device and login identifiers tying the accounts together. The particulars of claim are signed by X senior legal directors Diego de Lima Gualda and Adam Mehes.