Judge Rules Coffeezilla Must Face Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo Defamation Lawsuit

On March 26, Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad recommended that YouTuber “Coffeezilla” should not escape Logan Paul’s lawsuit. Paul claims Coffeezilla made false accusations about his failed CryptoZoo project.

Why Coffeezilla’s Dismissal Bid Failed

After Paul’s lawsuit, Findeisen asked the court to dismiss the case, claiming that his statements were opinions, not defamatory remarks. However, on March 26, Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad recommended that Findeisen’s request should be denied by the case’s federal judge, Orlando Garcia, because Findeisen’s claims were more like facts than “mere opinion.”

Judge Bemporad wrote, “At the pleading stage, Plaintiff [Paul] has sufficiently alleged that the statements at issue in this case are reasonably capable of having a defamatory meaning and are not unactionable opinions.”

If the defendants say that Findeisen’s words are not defamatory because of the context, the court should not agree, he said.

Paul sued Findeisen in June 2022, alleging reputational damage with one of his X posts and two YouTube videos about his blockchain-based NFT project, CryptoZoo.

In CryptoZoo, players buy NFT “eggs” that hatch into animals. These animals can then be bred to make new animals that can earn tokens based on how rare they are. So far, the game has not been released.

Source: CryptoZoo How CryptoZoo’s Failure Sparked Lawsuits and Refunds

As the controversy around CryptoZoo deepened, the situation took another turn when Paul denied that Findeisen had called him “a serial con artist” and said that CryptoZoo was a “scam” and a “massive con.”

Last month, Findeisen asked the court for an early judgment, arguing that his statements were opinions and that his videos had disclaimers in the description section that said the same thing.

“Findeisen’s three statements meet the legal definition of defamatory,” Bemporad said. The disclaimers, according to him, “are not particularly prominent” and only become visible when the section expands.

It wouldn’t change the factual nature of Findeisen’s claims much if the disclaimers were more prominently displayed, he said.

What Happens Next As The 14-Day Countdown Begins?

Within 14 days, either Paul or Findeisen can object to Bemporad’s report. Calls made outside of business hours to lawyers for Paul and Findeisen did not get an immediate response.

Separately, in 2022, Findeisen released three videos on CryptoZoo. Paul did not sue Findeisen for defamation, but he had threatened to do so in the past.

In January 2023, he said he would come up with a plan for CryptoZoo and then later changed his mind. A year later, Paul set aside $2.3 million. This was to refund claimants. They had to agree not to file lawsuits related to the project.

Despite Paul’s efforts to refund claimants, a class-action lawsuit was filed by CryptoZoo buyers, accusing Paul and others of involvement in the project. Paul has asked that the lawsuit be thrown out. In addition, he filed another lawsuit against two business partners, alleging they were responsible for CryptoZoo’s failure.

The judge has ruled that Logan Paul’s lawsuit against Coffeezilla can move ahead. Despite Coffeezilla’s disclaimers, the court perceives his statements about Paul’s CryptoZoo project as potentially defamatory. This 14-day period could determine the future of Paul’s lawsuit and Coffeezilla’s defense.