Hailey Welch has been sued by investors who lost money after investing in her memecoin.
Hailey Welch, the Hawk Tuah girl, has been sued after investors lost their life savings following their purchase of the memcoin named $HAWK after Welch. The crypto coin was released on December 4 but within a day it lost more than 95 per cent of its value. Lawyers for the investors said this happened because of unlawful promotion and sale of the Hawk Tuah cryptocurrency memecoin on her podcast.
The lawsuit has named: Tuah The Moon Foundation, which was used to handle money taken in from the sale of the meme coin, and the coin's creator, OverHere Ltd and its executive, Clinton So and the meme coin's Los Angeles-based promoter, Alex Larson Schultz, Newsweek reported.
Notable guests on Hailey Welch's podcast created a speculative frenzy over token
The lawsuit said that there were aggressive promotional campaigns for the token which caused the market value to spike soon after launch and then nosedive soon. "Through aggressive promotional campaigns and promises of future growth, Defendants created a speculative frenzy that caused the Token's market value to spike shortly after launch, reaching a significant market capitalization. Defendants leveraged Welch's celebrity status and connections to enhance the Token's credibility and appeal, including discussing the $HAWK project during Welch's podcasts featuring notable guests," the filing said.
"Defendants leveraged the extensive social media following of Hailey Welch, a prominent social media personality known as the "Hawk Tuah Girl," to market the Token as a groundbreaking cryptocurrency project, it said.
Many of the investors were first-time cryptocurrency participants who invested only because of Hailey Welch, it said.
What actually happened: What Hawk Tuah team said
In a statement, Hailey Welch's team has now blamed Alex Larson Schultz, who goes by the name Doc Hollywood, who they said controlled all token decisions, fees, and treasury.
In a details post on X, Hawak Tuah girl's stream said Doc Hollywood's team vanished when things got hard. "Doc Hollywood promised community but delivered:• 15% trading fees (none to overHere) • Silence during market chaos • Ignored calls for transparency," it said.