Diver Vernon Unsworth filed a lawsuit against the SpaceX and Tesla founder, over tweets Musk sent during the rescue of a Thai boys soccer team in June and July.

“Elon Musk falsely accused Vern Unsworth of being guilty of heinous crimes,” his lawyer, Lin Wood, wrote in a statement emailed to ABC News. “Musk�s influence and wealth cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law.”

The lawsuit, which blasts the “unlawful, unsupportable, and reprehensible accusations” by Musk, was filed in a Los Angeles federal court.

Unsworth is seeking more than $75,000 in damages, attorney fees, and a court order stopping Musk from making further allegations. Musk resides in California and his two companies, SpaceX and Tesla are headquartered there.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SpaceX, which is announcing its first private passenger for a flight to the moon later on Monday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The battle of words dates back to earlier this summer when 12 Thai soccer players and their coach were trapped in a cave in Northern Thailand. The story caught Musk’s attention, who, unprompted, sent a mini-submarine to assist with the rescue.

In a CNN interview that followed, Unsworth, an experienced diver who assisted in the rescue, said Musk’s mini-submarine was a “PR stunt” that has “absolutely no chance of working.”

In response, Musk criticized Unsworth several times via his Twitter account.

�I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what�s actually going on and stop defending child rapists,” Musk wrote in an email to a Buzzfeed reporter, employing a pair of expletives to underscore his point.

�As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I…hope he sues me,� Musk’s email continued, again using an expletive to underscore his point.

(AP)