Elon Musk’s X Accuses Duel.com Founder of $300K Bribe Attempt, Account Takeovers

X Corp. has accused crypto gambling entrepreneur Ossi Ketola and Duel.com of repeatedly bribing its employees and contractors as part of an elaborate campaign to seize valuable usernames, restore suspended accounts, and target rivals and critics. Duel founder Ossi Ketola, above, is accused by X of orchestrating a campaign to manipulate the platform through bribery, account takeovers, and attacks on critics. (Image: Kick/Monarch) The explosive allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Monday (September 28) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against Immortal Snail LLC, the Nevis-registered operator of Duel. X claims Ketola and Immortal Snail were behind a series of security breaches and bribes stretching back to 2024, culminating in an alleged attempt to offer one X employee $300,000 to restore suspended accounts associated with Duel and Ketola. The allegations have not been proven in court, and Immortal Snail has yet to respond to X’s complaint. X Claims Employees Were Bribed Ketola, known online as “Monarch,” is the founder of Duel and skin-gambling site CSGOEmpire, according to the lawsuit. X alleges Ketola and Immortal Snail initially compromised another user’s @duel account in March 2024, changing its email address to one associated with CSGOEmpire operator Moonrail Limited and using the account to promote the then-new Duel casino. X suspended the account two days later after determining it had been compromised and stolen, according to the complaint. Ketola and Immortal Snail then allegedly began using intermediaries to target X employees in an effort to regain control. On June 26, 2024, they allegedly bribed an X employee to disclose internal information about @duel. X says the employee was subsequently fired. Four months later, they allegedly bribed an X contractor to reinstate @duel without authorization. X said it fired the contractor and suspended the account again two days later. X alleges Ketola’s @monarch handle also initially belonged to someone else. The company claims Ketola and Immortal Snail compromised the existing account in June 2024 and bribed a contractor to change its username, freeing the @monarch handle to be transferred to an account they controlled. Another X employee was allegedly offered $1,500 to access internal information about @monarch. X claims the employee admitted photographing information on his work screen and sending it to an outside party. Five days after the alleged $1,500 bribe, another contractor was allegedly bribed to reinstate @monarch and @JNSAST, an account X says Ketola styled as a militant “hit squad” targeting his enemies. X says it terminated the contractor and re-suspended both accounts. ‘Ban Users as a Service’ X alleges Ketola and Immortal Snail later enlisted an individual named Haci Isik to help recover @duel. Isik allegedly approached third parties looking for an X insider who “would take decent money for stuff like this” and would “ban users as a service.” When those efforts failed, X claims Isik approached the company directly and said he wanted to buy @duel for a new esports venture. Immortal Snail ultimately paid X for the handle in March 2025, according to the complaint, without disclosing its involvement with the previously suspended @duel account. Isik subsequently approached X to purchase @monarch and @castle, describing them as affiliates of @Duel. Immortal Snail again made the payments, according to the complaint. X alleges Isik and Immortal Snail concealed the company’s connection to the previously compromised @monarch account. Ketola adopted the newly purchased @monarch handle in April 2025. Moreover, X claims Isik later offered payments to find insiders willing to suspend accounts critical of Ketola and his companies—but the campaign against critics allegedly went far beyond that. The complaint cites reports linking Ketola and CSGOEmpire to the April 2024 hacking of the X account belonging to rival skin-gambling site CSGORoll. It also alleges Ketola and Immortal Snail hacked an account belonging to a former CSGOEmpire product manager known as “Grizzly” after he began publishing potentially damaging internal material about Ketola’s organization. The hacked account’s bio was allegedly changed from “Ex-CSGOEmpire” to “This account has been seized by @theJNSAST,” after which it was used to promote Duel. X suspended the @JNSAST account following reports of targeted harassment, doxxing, and violent threats. Ketola curated the content on @JNSAST to make it look like it was operated by a ‘hit squad’ that goes after Ketola’s enemies,” according to the complaint, which added that the account’s own bio described it as a “special law enforcement division of The Castle, which is responsible for the apprehension of sinners.” X further alleges, “on information and belief,” that Ketola and Immortal Snail were involved in filing a fraudulent trademark complaint containing doctored documents in an effort to get the account of CSGOEmpire’s former social media manager suspended. $300K Bribe Alleged X says it eventually discovered that Ketola and Immortal Snail were responsible for bribing multiple employees, compromising numerous accounts, and taking control of the original @duel and @monarch accounts. Around October 21, 2025, X suspended @duel, @monarch, and @castle, as well as accounts associated with CSGOEmpire, citing serious violations of its rules, including ban evasion. The complaint also highlights Duel’s broader controversies, including a 40-day desert-fasting stunt where people could bet whether the participant would die, a blackjack dealer appearing in Nazi attire during streams, and an offer to post $1 million bail for an online personality accused of attempting to murder a disabled Army veteran. Following the October suspensions, Ketola and Immortal Snail allegedly sent X fraudulent letters purporting to come from a U.S. law firm and demanding that @duel and @monarch be reinstated, according to the complaint. They also allegedly renewed their attempts to bribe X insiders. The complaint claims one X employee was offered $300,000 through messaging platforms to restore the accounts. X notes that Ketola and Immortal Snail have previously claimed competitors reported their accounts or bribed X employees to have them suspended. X alleges it was instead Ketola and Immortal Snail that had “systematically engaged in commercial bribery,” and says the suspensions resulted from serious security breaches and violations of its platform rules. Duel Wants Its Accounts Back The allegations became public because Immortal Snail is trying to force X into arbitration over the suspensions. Immortal Snail filed an American Arbitration Association claim April 8, seeking an order requiring X to “fully restore” access to @Duel, @Monarch, and @Castle. X is now asking a federal judge to halt that proceeding, arguing it never agreed to arbitrate disputes with Immortal Snail. X claims the alleged misconduct continued even after Immortal Snail launched the arbitration. In May 2026, Ketola and Immortal Snail allegedly submitted a fraudulent legal request impersonating the Royal Malaysian Police in an attempt to restore another associated account, @CS2skincom. X claims subsequent complaints filed with a government tribunal in India falsely purported to come from Indian residents. The arbitration has continued despite X’s objections. In August, the arbitrator determined he could consider his own jurisdiction and ordered simultaneous briefing on that question and on Immortal Snail’s request to have the accounts restored. X argues that question belongs before a judge and is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction preventing the arbitration from proceeding while the federal court decides whether Immortal Snail has any contractual right to arbitrate the dispute. The post Elon Musk’s X Accuses Duel.com Founder of $300K Bribe Attempt, Account Takeovers appeared first on Casino.org.