Meme-stock dealer Roaring Kitty sued over GameCease shares mania

The notorious meme-stock investor known as Roaring Kitty has been sued for allegedly orchestrating a ‘pump and dump’ scheme involving an American video game retailer.

In a proposed class action filed late last week, GameStop shareholder Martin Radev claimed Keith Gill was seeking to manipulate the stock for his own gain.

The lawsuit alleges that Gill, who has re-emerged after winning a cult online following during the pandemic, acquired 120,000 call options in GameStop before he started posting about the company in May.

Game over? Notorious meme-stock investor Keith Gill,known online as Roaring Kitty, has been sued for allegedly orchestrating a ‘pump and dump’ scheme

Gill returned to online chat forum Reddit two months ago with a post showing a £91million bet has been made on the beleaguered video game retailer. 

The post sent the value of the shares soaring in a move reminiscent to those seen in the meme stock craze of 2021.

The screenshot suggested that Gill may own 5m shares, fuelling investor confidence in the business.

It followed his re-emergence on X, formerly known as Twitter, a few weeks before when he posted cryptic tweets after a two-year absence. 

Shares had jumped from as little as $10.17 in April to as much as $33.13 by the start of June.

But Radev alleges Gill ‘quietly sold and/or exercised (i.e. dumped) all 120,000 of his GameStop call options for a large profit, seemingly to increase his own stake in GameStop stock by over 4 million shares’.

And although GameStop shares have retreated in recent weeks, they are still up 36 per cent so far this year, giving the group a market cap of £6.6billion.

Gill fuelled a buying spree of GameStop shares three years ago as the stock passed $120 from as little as $3 in three months, before falling back. 

It inspired the 2023 film Dumb Money.