Complaint claims Musk’s America Pac deceived voters by dishonestly claiming prize winners would be chosen at random

Elon Musk was litigated on Tuesday by a registered voter who signed his petition to support the first two amendments of the US Constitution (the right to free speech and to bear arms). Signing the said petition was prerequisite for becoming eligible to win $1m-a-day giveaway offered by Musk. Litigant claimed that the giveaway scheme was in fact a fraud.

The complainant, an Arizona resident Jacqueline McAferty, said Elon Musk and his America Pac organization deceptively induced voters to sign a petition by claiming they would choose winners at random. In reality, members of the Pac selected the winners, the suit alleges. McAferty had signed the petition on October 20th, the very day Musk announced the contest, according to the complaint. Musk “made the false statements with the intention of inducing individuals to sign the America PAC petition,” which was merely a scheme to obtain users’ data, the complaint asserts. McAferty is accusing Elon Musk of fraud and breach of contract. Musk’s own attorneys stated in court that the sweepstakes’ results were not random; they revealed that the winners were selected to be spokespeople for the group.

“The $1m recipients are not chosen by chance,” said Chris Gober (a lawyer for Musk), during a hearing in Pennsylvania. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1m recipient today and tomorrow.” Musk, in the meantime, said at a campaign rally that his Pac would be “awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition”.

McAferty also claimed the defendants had in fact profited from the giveaway by driving traffic and attention to Musk’s social media platform X, and by gathering personal information such as her name, phone number and address that they could sell. A lawyer for Musk and lawyers for McAferty did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the complaint.

McAferty litigated a day after a Philadelphia judge denied an appeal by that city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, to end the giveaway, which Krasner termed an illegal lottery. That ruling was more or less symbolic because Musk has no plans to give out more money subsequent to the US presidential election.

The world’s wealthiest person opened the giveaway to voters in seven battleground states who signed a petition to support the first two amendments of the US Constitution. Tuesday’s litigation seeks at least $5m in damages for everybody who signed.