“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public,” said Ben Armstrong.
Ben Armstrong, the man behind Bitboy Crypto said that he is dropping the defamation suit against fellow Youtube content creator Erling Mengshoel Jr., who goes by the name Atozy.
Armstrong officially filed the suit against Mengshoel Jr. on Aug. 12 in response to a Nov 2021 video titled “This YouTuber scams his fans… Bitboy Crypto” which alleged that Armstrong was dishonestly promoting dubious assets to his audience such as PAMP for his own gain. He was seeking $75,000 in damages over the ordeal.
However, Armstrong suggested in a Aug. 24 live stream that he is now walking back the complaint after Mengshoel Jr. managed to raise more than $200,000 for his defence.
The crypto YouTuber outlined that he initially filed the complaint with the aim to get Mengshoel Jr. to take the video down, and suggested that he didn’t want to actually go through with the court proceedings.
However, Armstrong explained that as Atozy now has enough to cover legal costs, and with prominent crypto trader/podcasters such as Cobie (Jordan Fish) donating $100,000 to the cause, the dispute has gone further than he initially intended.
“So we are gonna drop the lawsuit, 100% and I’m sorry this became public, I’m sorry that this has been misconstrued, but I just want you guys to understand why I was doing this. This was not about a slapstick lawsuit.”
“When someone implies that you could be in trouble from the SEC, that is not frivolous guys, that’s a very serious matter. And so from my perspective, trying to defend my reputation, trying to get him to remove the video that literally has wrong information in it, that was all I wanted,” he added.
At the time of writing, Atozy’s video is still up and has nearly 190,000 views. In the Bitboy livestream, Armstrong pleaded with Mengshoel Jr. to at least edit parts of the video which he has taken umbrage over. Ultimately however, Armstrong noted that Atozy has “won.”
From what I’ve heard Bitboy will be pulling the lawsuit.
I’m blown away from the support.
In less than 24 hours we raised roughly $200,000 USDOnce I have the confirmation it’s officially pulled. I will be refunding everyone who donated.
Thank you guys for saving me.
— atozy (@atozy) August 24, 2022
Commenting on the matter, Atozy states that all is yet to be resolved, as he is still waiting for the official confirmation from his lawyer that the complaint has been dismissed with “prejudice.”
“I’m told by my lawyer that if it is not with prejudice he can refile at any time,” he wrote, adding that once the official confirmation has come through, he will refund all the money to everyone that donated to the cause.