DOGE wants tips for waste at SEC, but is getting spam from crypto bros instead
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recruited X users to find fraud and waste at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this morning, only to be inundated by requests from meme stock traders and crypto bros.
The chaos began after a @DOGE_SEC account appeared on Monday with a grey verified badge, indicating it as an official government account. Its first and only post so far has notched 3.5 million views and counting.
“DOGE is seeking help from the public!” the post read. “Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Thousands of X users replied, many of whom seemingly ignored the account's instruction to communicate over private messages.
Many replies referenced GameStop, the video game retailer whose share price exploded in 2021 due to excitement from individual traders on the r/WallStreetBets Reddit channel.
“Why did they turn off the buy button in Jan 21 for GAMESTOP $GME,” asked one user in reference to some brokerage platforms’ decision to pause trading on the stock that month.
“Look into $GME highly manipulated by hedge funds,” another user requested.
“Lock in $GME community,” wrote one user, who claims to own more than 4,500 shares of GameStop stock. “Our time has come.”
Dozens of other replies asked for the SEC to drop its charges against the fugitive crypto entrepreneur Richard Heart — real name Richard Schueler.
The SEC alleges that Schueler and his businesses Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX conducted “unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion in crypto assets from investors,” $12 million of which he misappropriated on luxury goods. But crypto enthusiasts, who were sharply critical of the Biden administration’s SEC, are standing behind Scheuler.
“Case against @RichardHeartWin is bogus. Would be a good start to dismiss the case,” one reply suggested. “Our community including Richard rallied behind Trump as this was our only hope. Please look into it.”
“The SEC case against @RichardHeartWin HEX, PulseX and Pulsechain is wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive!” another user claimed. “Please help us remedy this nonsense ASAFP!”
“Richard Heart is innocent. Please also contact the FBI and DOJ to stop the lawfare and bogus claims they made to Interpol,” one reply read, referencing Interpol’s active arrest warrant against Schueler for tax fraud and the assault of a 16-year-old. “The whole situation is absurd and actively harming investors while wasting taxpayer dollars.”
Musk pledged to use DOGE to root out $2 trillion in supposedly unnecessary government spending after President Donald Trump’s election victory last November, though the tech mogul has since walked back his lofty goals.
It’s unclear how many government resources are tied up in the case against Schueler, which the SEC filed nearly two years ago, or in monitoring GameStop. But Musk’s @DOGE_SEC has at least captured the attention of online traders, picking up tens of thousands of followers today alone.
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