A cryptocurrency YouTuber has been served a lawsuit through a tweet after a United States court allowed the action as lawyers claimed they couldn’t serve him through other means.
A May 2 order from a Florida District Court Judge granted The Moskowitz Law Firm permission to serve legal notice to crypto YouTuber Tom Nash via a tweet.
Nash, who is believed to be residing in Georgia, is the last of ten defendants named in a class action lawsuit against influencers alleged to have promoted the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX without disclosing their compensation.
On May 2, the firm tweeted its notice to Nash and mentioned his Twitter handle in the post, thereby giving him legal notice of the lawsuit.
@iamtomnash, per the authorization of the Court presiding over the pending class action against you in the Southern District of Florida, you have been served: https://t.co/28YJQ2sKY5
– The Moskowitz Law Firm (@moskowitzesq) May 2, 2023
The filing set out instructions on how Nash was to be served using Twitter.
A legal notice URL was required to be shared by the law firm through its official Twitter account and tag Tom Nash’s Twitter account.
Moskowitz was also required to send the URL in an email to his publicly known email address.
The filing states Nash’s frequent internet use suggests that it is a reliable way of contacting him. It noted:
“Nash has an established Internet-based business, utilizes electronic means, including Twitter, as reliable forms of contact; and has publicly acknowledged [a] personal email address.”
According to the filing, when lawyers previously emailed Nash on an email he had publicly posted, it didn’t bounce back, which suggested Nash received the suit and his “e-mail address is valid and operational.”
A federal ruling allows the district court to “order an alternate method for service to be executed on foreign defendants” provided it isn’t against international agreements and is likely to effectively notify the defendant.
It further explained that Georgia and the U.S. are parties to The Hague Convention which provides a standardized method for serving legal documents between countries that are signatories of the treaty.
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The other nine defendants comprise seven YouTubers including Graham Stephan, Brian Jung and Ben Armstrong, known as “BitBoy Crypto.” The talent management company that handled the promotion of FTX, Creators Agency LLC, and its founder Erika Kullberg are also named.
Armstrong had missed a court appearance on April 20 to address his alleged “harassment towards plaintiffs’ counsel.”
Instead of attending the court hearing, Armstrong posted pictures of himself on a beach in the Bahamas on Twitter and openly mocked the order.
I am supposed to be in court today.
I’m not. Why?
Because I don’t give AF
RECKLESSNESS SPONSORED BY https://t.co/RtFomcGS5v pic.twitter.com/t9XqsNd6da
– Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto) April 20, 2023
Cointelegraph contacted Nash for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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