Drake Linked to Alleged Funding of Fake Spotify Streams

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Canadian rapper Drake, online sweepstake casino Stake, streamer Adin Ross and Australian George Nguyen for allegedly colluding to finance music botting campaigns.

The accusations:

• As per Billboard Canada, the case is brought by Virginia residents and Stake users LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines, and alleges that Stake illegally uses “virtual currency” to evade anti-gambling laws.

• The complainants also assert that the platform misrepresents that it is legal, harmless, and safe, and preys on consumers and lures them into real-money gambling.

Fake streams:

• The complaint alleges that Drake, alongside Ross and Nguyen, has used Stake.com and Stake.us to “covertly finance the orchestrated procurement of botting and streaming farm activities to artificially inflate the number of plays attributed to Drake’s catalogue across major digital streaming services such as Spotify.”

• In a press release issued by the law firm representing Ridley and Hines, Impresa Legal Group alleges Drake and Ross transmitted money to Nguyen via Stake’s “wholly encrypted and substantially unregulated” Tipping feature.

• It asserts that Nguyen then used that money to coordinate “directly with bot vendors, clipping channels and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of Drake’s music and suppress the success of other music artists.”

Other suits:

• In October Drake and Ross were hit with another class action lawsuit accusing the duo of promoting illegal gambling by endorsing Stake, and of carrying out “exploitative marketing” for the company.

The response:

• Drake’s representatives are yet to comment.