Crypto-central legal firm Burwick Law has filed a U.S. federal lawsuit on behalf of investors in the influencer-pushed Hawk Tuah (HAWK) meme coin that fell on its face in the hours following its launch.
Haliey Welch, who gained notoriety this year as the “Hawk Tuah” girl following a viral interview about sexual techniques, was the face of a disastrous Solana meme coin launch at the start of the month.
Not only did the price collapse 93% from a $490 million peak market cap, with rug pull allegations quickly surfacing, but a cluster of connected wallets holding 96% of the supply led to further controversy—the hate only increased when it was found some of these wallets were selling.
Quickly, Burwick Law posted on Twitter asking for HAWK buyers impacted by the plunge to step forward to create a potential lawsuit. Now, two weeks later, that lawsuit has been filed, naming 12 American resident plaintiffs who claim to have collectively suffered damages in excess of $151,000.
“Haliey Welch may finally wake up in response to today’s lawsuit filed by investors against the HAWK Team, alleging they marketed and sold an unregistered security,” crypto-centric attorney Carlo D’Angelo, who is unaffiliated with this case, told Decrypt. “[The] lawsuit is not at all surprising, given the amount of attention both the token launch and its immediate pump and crash have drawn.”
The complaint names Alex Larson Schultz, who has been identified as Doc Hollywood, OverHere Limited, Clinton So, and Tuah the Moon Foundation as the four defendants.
On the day the token launched, Haliey Welch, Doc Hollywood, and a representative from OverHere spoke to angry investors and spectators about the token launch. During this X Spaces event, the trio attempted to defend the launch—but once the noise got too loud, Welch decided it was time to go to bed. She has not posted to social media since then.
Hawk now sits at a mere $7.7 million market cap, down 23.5% on the day. A community note on an X post by OverHere, viewed over 3.5 million times, suggested that Welch might need to “talk tuah judge” after the debacle.
“This lawsuit highlights the risks associated with the marketing of alleged ‘pump-and-dump’ meme coins.” D’Angelo added. “For celebrities and influencers, the lawsuit serves as a stark reminder that lending one’s name and brand to cryptocurrency projects carries significant legal and reputational risks.”
On Monday, OverHere broke the silence by claiming the company made zero profit—working purely on a contractual basis. The Twitter thread claims that Doc Hollywood didn’t pull his weight despite controlling “all token decisions, fees, [and the] treasury.” This left OverHere pulling a disproportionate amount of weight, the post claimed.
As a result, the OverHere thread appeared to shift the blame away from itself and towards Doc Hollywood—who has since locked his X account. That said, the company did admit that it had made mistakes, but only in the sense that it trusted the wrong partners, spent too much time trying to fix other peoples’ mistakes, and should have made a statement sooner.
The company ended its statement by saying that Welch needs to step up and fix what has gone wrong.
Welch’s team did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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Ryan Gladwin
https://decrypt.co/297943/hawk-tuah-hailey-welch-meme-coin-lawsuit
2024-12-19 17:32:18
