Various celebrities including Kim Kardashian, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, former NBA All-Star Paul Pierce are being sued over their roles in an alleged cryptocurrency scam. These celebrities and the company EthereumMax including co-founders and others are being accused of making misleading statements about company’s digital tokens, according to the class action complaint from the Central District of California.
“The Company’s executives, collaborating with several celebrity promotors, (a) made false or misleading statements to investors about EthereumMax through social media advertisements and other promotional activities and (b) disguised their control over EthereumMax and a significant percent of the EMAX Tokens that were available for public trading during the Relevant Period,” the complaint reads.
EthereumMax offers ERC-20 virtual tokens on the Ethereum network. ERC-20 was trading at $0.00000001961 on Tuesday morning, according to CoinMarketCap. The lawsuit claimed that the celebrities told their million followers on social media to purchase the coins, only to sell when the price was high.
Last June, Kim Kardashian posted about EthereumMax token to her over 250 million followers on Instagram. “Are you guys into crypto? This is not a financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token! A few minutes ago Ethereum Max burned 400 trillion tokens — literally 50 per cent of their admin wallet giving back to the entire E-Max community,” she wrote.
On June 7, 2021, boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. told the press after a fight with Logan Paul, that he made $30 million from the sponsorships on his shorts. “My trunks alone, just my trunks alone, $30 million. Just with the patches on my trunks, that’s $30 million,” Mayweather said. The patches on Mayweather’s shorts included logos from the cryptocurrency EthereumMax among others.
“.@espn I don’t need you. I got @ethereum_max I made more money with this crypto in the past month then I did with y’all in a year. TRUTH shall set u Free my own Boss http://EthereumMax.org check it out for yourself,” Pierce posted this in last May from his Twitter account.
Ryan Huegerich filed the complaint on behalf of himself and others who purchased EMAX tokens between May 14, 2021, and June 27, 2021, and lost money, according to the filing. However, he did not mention the amount of money he lost during that time.
“The Promoter Defendants’ improper promotional activities generated the trading volume needed for all the Defendants to offload their EMAX Tokens onto unsuspecting investors. While Plaintiff and Class members were buying the inappropriately promoted EMAX Tokens, Defendants were able to, and did, sell their EMAX Tokens during the Relevant Period for substantial profits,” the complaint mentioned.
On the alleged cryptocurrency scam, a spokesperson from EthereumMax replied, “The deceptive narrative associated with the recent allegations is riddled with misinformation.” Kardashian, Mayweather and Pierce did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to various media reports.
Crypto Bubble?
Right after Kim Kardashian’s social media post on EthereumMax, Charles Randell, FCA chairman called the cryptocurrency “a speculative digital token created a month before by unknown developers”. He was speaking to the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. He also accused influencers of fuelling the “delusions of quick riches”. “I can’t say whether this particular token [Ethereum Max] is a scam. But social media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation. Some influencers promote coins that turn out simply not to exist at all,” he said.
Cryptocurrency markets are extremely volatile.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.
.