X sues crypto operator Duel over alleged $300K bribe offer

• X Corp sues Duel operator Immortal Snail in a Texas federal court.
• Complaint alleges a $300,000 offer to an X employee to restore suspended accounts.
• X seeks to halt arbitration over the @duel, @monarch and @castle handles.

X Corp has sued Immortal Snail LLC, the operator of crypto casino Duel, alleging the company and founder Ossi Ketola bribed or tried to influence X staff to seize and restore valuable accounts.

The complaint, filed last week on September 28, includes an alleged $300,000 offer to one X employee.

The allegations have not been tested in court. Ketola is not named as a defendant, and no response from Immortal Snail to the complaint had been located as of publication.

The case sits in the Fort Worth Division of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Court records show the case, numbered 4:26-cv-01254, was reassigned to another judge in the district on September 30.

Behind the brand

Duel operates as a cryptocurrency casino and sports betting brand. It operates under an Anjouan license, and X’s complaint identifies Immortal Snail as a Nevis-registered company. Its website greets players with an expletive-laden tagline. In October 2025, Duel was promoting games with a claimed 100% return-to-player rate.

Duel’s owner, Ossi Ketola, is a Finnish former Counter-Strike professional known online as “Monarch.” He became known in the Counter-Strike skin-gambling scene through CSGOEmpire.

Ketola’s poker profile has given the brand wider reach. He finished runner-up in a $150,000 buy-in Triton Super High Roller event in Monte Carlo in November 2024, earning $2.97 million. His televised heads-up matches followed in 2025, including six against Dan “Jungleman” Cates in August that left him an estimated $14 million to $15 million down.

Andrew Tate shared a Duel affiliate link on November 7, 2025, and wore Duel-branded apparel promoting his December 20 fight against Chase DeMoor. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Handles, hacks and bribes

According to the complaint, the dispute began in March 2024, when another user’s @duel account was compromised. Its email was allegedly switched to one linked to Moonrail Limited, the operator of CSGOEmpire.

X says it suspended the account two days later. On June 26, 2024, an X employee was allegedly bribed to disclose internal information about @duel and was later fired. Four months later, a contractor allegedly reinstated the account without authorization. X says it dismissed the contractor and suspended @duel again.

A similar pattern allegedly played out with @monarch. X claims the original account was compromised in June 2024 and a contractor was paid to free up the username.

X also alleges an employee accepted $1,500 for internal information on @monarch. The company claims the employee admitted photographing his work screen and sending the images to an outside party.

The complaint names Haci Isik as an alleged intermediary who sought an X insider willing to suspend users for payment. X alleges Immortal Snail later acquired the @duel, @monarch and @castle handles through him without disclosing its links to the compromised accounts.

The filing refers to media reports linking CSGOEmpire to the April 2024 compromise of rival CSGORoll‘s X account. X also says it suspended @JNSAST, an account allegedly styled as a “hit squad” targeting Ketola’s enemies, after reports of harassment and doxxing.

X suspended @duel, @monarch, @castle and CSGOEmpire accounts around October 21, 2025, citing ban evasion and other rule violations. Ketola blamed a paid campaign at the time.

Ossi Ketola, founder of Duel, said at the time:

“…it seems that someone spent a significant amount of money to get the accounts banned.”

X’s complaint presents a contrary account. After the suspensions, one employee was allegedly offered $300,000 through messaging platforms to restore the accounts.

Arbitration fight looms

The allegations surfaced in response to an American Arbitration Association claim Immortal Snail filed on April 8, 2026, seeking restored access to the three handles. In that demand, Immortal Snail says it paid X $480,000 for them and calls X’s ban-evasion rationale a pretext.

X argues it never agreed to arbitrate with the company. It also alleges a fraudulent legal request impersonating the Royal Malaysian Police was submitted in May 2026 to restore another account.

On August 25, the arbitrator determined he could decide his own jurisdiction, at a hearing X did not attend. X is seeking a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction and a permanent stay of the arbitration.

The court may address that request before any ruling on the merits. Timing is tight, with the arbitrator’s jurisdiction decision due on October 9.

For Duel, the outcome decides where its fight for its most valuable marketing channels plays out. The case also highlights how exposed offshore crypto brands are on account security, after hackers drained $7 million from unrelated operator Duelbits last month.