Elon Musk and X claim Vivek Sen and Sherpa made Rs 2.6 crore through scamming, case is now in court

X, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, has sued two users, Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, alleging they ran a network of accounts to manipulate engagement and the creator payout system. The company claims the defendants received more than £207,000 (around Rs 2.6 crore) in creator payouts.

In Short

• X alleges Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa misused its creator payout programme
• X alleges that the scammers made around Rs 2.6 crore
• X says it suspended the accounts used by Sen and Sherpa on August 18 

Elon Musk’s X has sued two users in England, accusing them of using multiple Bitcoin-focused accounts to create fake engagement on the platform. The company alleges the users manipulated X’s creator programme and claimed at least £207,384 (around Rs 2.6 crore) in payouts through fraud. The lawsuit, filed in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, names Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa and “persons unknown” who allegedly operated or controlled many X accounts.

X, a social media site owned by Elon Musk, is now seeking repayment of the money, damages, interest and legal costs. James M Burnham, general counsel of xAI and X, shared details of the latest lawsuit on X, alleging that the company is taking the defendants to court over the alleged misuse of its creator payout programme.

“Last week, X sued several people who abused Creator Revenue Sharing by operating a coordinated network of accounts, posting inauthentic content to manipulate engagement, and using multiple bank accounts to hide their scheme,” he wrote. “We do not tolerate fraudulent behaviour on X — and will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.”

X CEO Elon Musk replied to the post, writing: “Don’t mess with X.”

What is the case?

In the lawsuit filed in the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, X alleges that Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, along with other unnamed individuals, operated six accounts on the platform as a single coordinated network to manipulate engagement metrics and generate payouts from its Creator Revenue Sharing Programme.

The company alleges that these six accounts used to like, repost and reply to one another’s content, while also posting identical or similar content to make the engagement appear genuine.

X also alleges that some other accounts were used to like, reply to and repost content from the main accounts, helping create the appearance of genuine user engagement. According to X, the alleged scammers ran these accounts together to make their posts appear more popular than they really were. The company says the accounts repeatedly liked, reposted and replied to one another, while also posting the same or very similar content within seconds or minutes to create the appearance of genuine engagement.

“The Defendants, individually and (or) in combination, operated the accounts as a single coordinated network for the purpose of manipulating engagement metrics to generate payouts from the Programme,” reads the lawsuit.

For example, X alleges that two accounts — @TrendingBitcoin and @saylordocs — posted the same content within two minutes on October 10, 2025. X also cites an August 2026 instance where three accounts replied to the same post within 31 seconds.

X describes this as “a false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction” that increased share of creator payouts for Sen, Sherpa and others. It also alleges that multiple accounts allowed the operation to continue even if one account was suspended.

Sen and others made Rs 2.6 crore in this fraud?

According to the lawsuit, through this fraudulent scheme Vivek Kumar Sen and other defendants generated at least £207,384 (around Rs 2.6 crore) in payouts. The company also expects at least another £75,000 that it incurred in costs related to investigating and addressing the alleged fraud.

The lawsuit further alleges that Sen tried to buy another high-follower X account in December 2025 and wrote that he did not want them to “get in trouble for something X doesn’t allow”.

Interestingly, the accounts mentioned in the X lawsuit may not be the only ones trying to profit from X Creator Programme. Since its launch a few years ago, the programme has been controversial. Many X users claim that monetary incentive have encouraged some users to post spam or steal viral content from each other. It has also possibly increased amount of content created that is low quality but has probability of going viral.

Most notably, the modus operandi that X describes in its lawsuit — that multiple accounts boost posts from each other — could be more widespread than what the X filings suggest. There have been instances of popular X users in India who have often used artificially-created network effect to boost their content and benefit from X monetisation programme.

Possibly to curtail the practice, few weeks ago X ended its revenue programme. Instead, it has now started a different programme called Original Content Rewards, which is open only to vetted users and only to those who promise to create completely original and high-quality content.

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