Social media giant X is taking legal action against two individuals who allegedly established an automated network of fraudulent cryptocurrency news accounts to extract money from the platform’s creator compensation pool.
The legal filing identifies Vivek Kumar Sen and Zmyang Sherpa as the principal organizers behind the operation, with legal representation provided by Lewis Silkin LLP. At issue is approximately 207,000 pounds ($277,000) worth of contested creator fund distributions. Expenses relating to additional damages from internal inquiries and remediation remain undetermined.
The legal action lists nine specific handles tied to the alleged operation: @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy, @saylordocs, @TrendingBitcoin, @Kalshibacktest, @PolyBackTest, @BTC_Vibes, @MrSuperBitcoin, and @Laserlump. These profiles disseminated fabricated breaking news updates that frequently matched word for word and were published on the platform within moments of each other.
The majority of these messages put forward unverified assertions concerning major financial entities to capture widespread attention, such as claiming that the chief executive of Goldman Sachs was promoting digital asset legislation or asserting that Citibank had acquired $12.6 million worth of bitcoin.
Furthermore, the complaint contends that the accused parties ran profiles that persistently engaged with the content through likes, replies, and reposts to fabricate a false sense of user interaction.
The @Vivek4real_ profile appeared to scale the enterprise by offering commercial engagement and manipulation tactics to outside parties, encouraging the acquisition of alternative profiles with large follower counts. The legal documentation highlights a communication where Sen allegedly told an external user regarding an account purchase: “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.”
X permanently suspended all profiles connected to this infrastructure on August 18 due to violations involving coordinated revenue sharing fraud and platform manipulation.
These profiles collected funds via shared Stripe merchant profiles featuring inconsistent names while remaining connected through common hardware and sign-in credentials. For example, the payment information for one profile was registered to Stefan Mann, whereas the associated banking destination and electronic mail contact belonged to Sen.
X is currently demanding the reimbursement of the creator fund disbursements alongside financial compensation for deceit and conspiracy. The formal claims were authorized by X Senior Legal Directors Diego de Lima Gualda and Adam Mehes.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/09/21/x-sues-its-won-users-for-running-a-fake-bitcoin-news-bot-farm.
