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Investors Move to Expand Suit With Whistleblower Claims Against Meteora and Kelsier Over $MELANIA Pump-and-Dump

The proposed update relies on an anonymous whistleblower to outline a repeatable playbook that allegedly used celebrity branding to confer legitimacy on insider-loaded tokens.

Overview

  • Plaintiffs asked a Manhattan federal judge for permission to file a second amended complaint that broadens the case from earlier $M3M3 allegations to at least 15 coins, including $MELANIA.
  • According to the filing, Meteora ran the technical infrastructure while Kelsier supplied capital and coordinated paid influencer campaigns that marketed launches as “fair” and “community-led.”
  • On‑chain traces cited by plaintiffs claim wallets tied to the firms accumulated nearly one‑third of the $MELANIA supply before trading began, then sold into a surge created by synchronized promotion.
  • $MELANIA’s price jumped roughly twelve‑fold to $13.73 with a peak paper value near $1.6 billion, then fell about 95% to around ten cents, leaving many retail buyers with steep losses.
  • Melania Trump is not named as a defendant and is not alleged to have operated the scheme, the court has not ruled on the motion, and the named executives did not immediately comment.