(Bloomberg) — Keith Gill, a popular stock market influencer better known as “Roaring Kitty,” was indicted for allegedly orchestrating a “pump and dump” scheme involving shares of GameStop Corp.
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Gill, who rose to fame promoting GameStop during the 2021 meme stock craze, resurfaced in May and began posting about the gaming retailer again on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
In a proposed class action filed Friday in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, GameStop shareholder Martin Radev alleges Gill tried to manipulate the stock for his own gain.
Gill did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Posts from Gill starting May 13 sent GameStop shares up 180%. On June 2, he revealed that he owned 5 million shares of GameStop and 120,000 call options that were set to expire on June 21. By June 13, Gill’s holdings had increased to more than 9 million shares of GameStop with no outstanding call options.
Gill became one of the public faces of the meme stock craze, amassing more than a million followers on his YouTube channel “Roaring Kitty” and his Reddit page “DeepF***ingValue.”
GameStop soared more than 1,700% in January 2021, and the stock’s stratospheric rise appeared to pit retail investors against veteran hedge funds that heavily shorted the troubled retailer.
Shares of Chewy Inc. rose on Monday. by as much as 10% after Gill announced a 6.6% passive stake in the online pet food and products store.
The case is Radev v. Gill, 24-cv-04608, US District Court, Eastern District of New York.
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