Highly-followed influencer Logan Paul has launched a defamation lawsuit against Stephen Findeisen, a YouTuber known as “Coffeezilla,” in response to videos he produced regarding Paul’s unsuccessful non-fungible token (NFT) venture, CryptoZoo. The lawsuit, submitted in a San Antonio, Texas District Court on June 27, alleges that Findeisen falsely and repeatedly accused Paul of operating a scam with the troubled blockchain project CryptoZoo.
According to the court filing, Paul is suing for defamation to make Findeisen accountable for the significant damage he has allegedly caused to Paul’s reputation by disseminating false statements. Starting in late 2022, Coffeezilla published a series of three YouTube videos about CryptoZoo, in which he branded it “Logan Paul’s biggest scam.” He accused Paul of fraudulent behavior by keeping the money from NFT holders and not delivering the rest of the proposed project.
Paul’s legal team argues that Coffeezilla intentionally left out information that would have demonstrated Paul’s deep commitment to making CryptoZoo successful. According to the filing, Paul was misled by several trusted project advisers who turned out to be fraudsters. The blame for the project’s downfall, Paul alleges, lies with Eduardo “Eddie” Ibanez, a supposed fraud, and Jake Greenbaum, an adviser who was more interested in personal profit than creating a legitimate project.
In the past, Paul considered suing Findeisen but decided against it to concentrate on developing a $1.5 million recovery plan for CryptoZoo. Despite this, his efforts failed to materialize, and he spent $1 million buying back the NFTs between January and March while not making any revenue from the project. He is seeking for damages of over $75,000, plus interest and legal fees, and additional compensation and relief as determined by the court.
CryptoZoo was launched in 2021 and was designed to be an interactive game where players bought NFT “eggs” using the game’s ZOO token. These eggs would hatch into animals, which could be bred to create hybrid creatures that could be traded, earning players more ZOO tokens based on their rarity.