Logan Paul’s lawsuit against YouTuber Coffeezilla is moving forward after a U.S. magistrate judge denied the crypto sleuth’s request to dismiss Paul’s claims with prejudice.
Counsel for Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, filed a motion to dismiss the claims in February on behalf of Findeisen and Coffee Break Productions LLC, claiming that the alleged libelous statements were not capable of defaming Paul.
Texas magistrate judge Henry J. Bemporad disagreed, noting that Findeisen’s use of the word “scam” met the defamatory definition while adding that his role as a crypto investigator would lead an “objectively reasonable reader” to understand his statements as an assertion of fact. As such, Bemporad recommended that the motion be denied in a filing dated March 26.
“At the pleading stage, Plaintiff has sufficiently alleged that the statements at issue in this case are reasonably capable of defamatory meaning and are not unactionable opinions,” the judge wrote in his recommendation.
The saga between Paul and Coffeezilla extends back to early 2023, when the influencer threatened to sue the sleuth for alleged libelous remarks made during his investigation of CryptoZoo, the NFT project and game that Paul was connected to.
More than a year later, Paul made good on the threat, formally filing suit which alleged Findeisen “maliciously and repeatedly published false statements accusing Paul of operating a scam in connection with a troubled blockchain project called CryptoZoo.”
Findeisen has published seven videos about Paul and CryptoZoo on YouTube, at least three of which are specifically mentioned in the latest filing by Judge Bemporad.
In those videos, Findeisen alleges that Paul’s game, which never fully materialized, was a scam—going so far as to include the word “scam” in four of the video titles, the largest of which has more than 10 million views on YouTube.
Findeisen is not the only party embroiled in years-long legal battles surrounding CryptoZoo. A class action lawsuit was filed in 2023, with investors alleging the project conducted a “rug pull.”
Paul later filed a countersuit against two of the project’s contributors, Eduardo “Eddie” Ibanez and Jake “CryptoKing” Greenbaum, pointing the blame in the pair’s direction and saying their actions had “intention of defrauding us all.”
Prior to that class action suit, Paul said that he had set aside $1.8 million to refund those that had participated with CryptoZoo. A year later, he opened an unsecure website to accept claims for up to $2.3 million in refunds. Those who submitted a claim waived their right to sue Paul over CryptoZoo in the future.
Parties in the case between Paul and Coffeezilla will have 14 days from being served a copy of Judge Bemporad’s recommendation to file an objection.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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