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Keith Gill, one of the most well-known Reddit users involved in the GameStop stock surge who branded himself as a hobby investor, was hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing him of deception and market manipulation.
Known on the internet as Roaring Kitty and DeepF -ingValue, Gill was an active contributor to Reddit s r/WallStreetBets thread, in which he frequently encouraged users to buy shares of GameStop, the value of which surged more than 1,000% in January.
GameStop, previously one of the most shorted stocks on the market, surged from less than $18 in the beginning of January to a closing high of $347 on Jan. 27, triggering a massive short squeeze that cost some hedge funds billions of dollars. But after online brokerages introduced trading restrictions on GameStop and other retro stocks that had gained attention on Reddit, the value of the stock plummeted back below $50, costing retail traders hundreds of thousands of dollars.