Socialite Kim Kardashian looks set to beat a lawsuit in which she was accused of scamming investors through the ill-fated digital asset project EthereumMax (EMAX).
Kim has been sued by hundreds of investors in a class action lawsuit alongside boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and former Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce. As CoinGeek reported in January, the investors filed a lawsuit in California, accusing the three of conspiring with the project’s founders to pump EMAX and then dumping the investors.
Kim, in particular, was sued for her Instagram posts in which she touted EthereumMax to her followers. The SEC would later go after the ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ star after she allegedly promoted EMAX without disclosing that she had received compensation for her efforts. In October, she settled the charges with the agency for $1.26 million.
However, according to Bloomberg, Kim, Mayweather and Pierce will go through their legal battle with EMAX investors unscathed.
The outlet reports that U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald is expected to rule in their favor, dismissing the charges brought by the plaintiffs. In a written order, the Los Angeles judge accused the plaintiffs’ attorneys of taking on the role of the SEC, but did not charge the three celebrities with securities law violations “for obvious reasons.”
“It seems here that there are a lot of problems in this case,” Judge Fitzgerald said, pledging to issue his written order later.
Plaintiffs’ attorney John Jasnoch argued in court that the three celebrities were responsible for the loss of millions of dollars by lending credibility to the project.
“If plaintiffs had known the true facts related to the promoters’ financial interest in the tokens, and that they were being paid to sell those tokens, they would not have paid as much for the tokens as they did” , argued the lawyers, but that did not change the judge’s position.
While this was the first time Kim has been sued on charges related to digital assets, Mayweather is a repeat offender. In 2021, he was involved in Centra Tech, a digital currency scam that managed to raise $32 million by lying to investors about its technology and partnerships. He and music producer DJ Khaled managed to avoid any repercussions related to their roles. Centra Tech founder Sohrab Sharma was not so lucky and was sentenced to eight years behind bars last year.
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Ethereum, FTX and Attached– who co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for naïve (and even experienced) market players.
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