A YouTuber who in the past has used his channel to market cryptocurrency-related products and services received a lawsuit summons by way of a Twitter post after a United States court approved the method. The approval for the unorthodox court summons came after attorneys informed the court that they have been unable to serve the summons using conventional methods.
On May 2nd, the order was given by a Florida district court judge, after which, the Moskowitz Law Firm had permission to use Twitter to issue the legal notice to the influencer, Tom Nash.
Nash, who is believed to have a full-time residence in Georgia, is the last of a total of ten defendants who have been named in a class-action suit against online influencers who are accused of having promoted the FTX cryptocurrency exchange without first disclosing that they were being paid by the exchange for advertising their services.
After receiving court approval, the Moskowitz Law Firm tweeted the notice to Nash, making sure to use the mention feature in order to link his name in the post. According to the court ruling, this action means that Nash has been provided with legal notice of the case.
The court filing did provide specific instructions for how Nash could be served via the popular social media website. A link to a legal notice had to be shared by the legal firm using its Twitter account. The firm also has to “tag” the Twitter account linked to Nash. Lastly, the law firm also had to deliver the URL via email to Nash’s email address.
According to the filing:
“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.”
The filing also states that when lawyers had previously emailed Nash using the email address that he had posted publicly, it was not returned as undeliverable, which indicated that his “e-mail address is valid and operational.”
A federal court ruling permits the district court to “order an alternate method for service to be executed on foreign defendants,” so long as the action doesn’t go against any international agreements and will most likely notify the defendant in an effective manner.
The ruling also explained that the United States and Georgia are both parties to The Hague Convention. This means that each provides a standard method for the serving of legal documentation between the countries.
The remaining defendants include YouTubers such as:
- Graham Stephan
- Brian Jung
- Ben Armstrong (known as BitBoy Crypto)
Also included is Creators Agency, the talent management company that helped to promote FTX, and the company’s founder Erika Kullberg.
Ben Armstrong skipped an April 20th court appearance targeted at addressing his alleged “harassment towards plaintiffs’ counsel.” Rather than attending the hearing, Armstrong shared photos of himself in the Bahamas on his Twitter account, openly mocking the court order.