Lime Co-Founder Accused of Pump-and-Dump Scheme Tied to Cere Network Token

A federal lawsuit has been filed against Brad Bao, co-founder of the ride-sharing company Lime, alleging his involvement in a pump-and-dump scheme tied to the Cere Network token.

The case claims that insiders, including Cere Network CEO Fred Jin, sold nearly $42 million worth of tokens at launch, triggering a 99% price collapse. The plaintiffs argue that this rapid sell-off effectively wiped out retail participants while benefiting insiders.

The lawsuit also alleges that market-making firm Gotbit Ltd. was used to conduct wash trading in order to conceal the scale of insider dumping. In addition, plaintiffs claim that $16.6 million was siphoned from company wallets and diverted into speculative DeFi investments.