Kim has agreed to pay over $1.2 million to settle the charges.
At this point it should be known that Ethereum and the SEC don’t mix. With the government agency claiming dominion over the cryptocurrency it may be smart to stay clear of Ethereum if you are not going to do things the right way. Reality Show actress Kim Kardashian has learned this recently as she was slapped with charges by the SEC for shilling EMAX tokens on instagram.
The SEC announced the charges against Kim for allegedly promoting “a crypto asset security” The asset would be EthereumMAX which was promoted by her last year. She is not the only one as other celebrities involved in the promotion of EMAX, which is an Ethereum-based token. Celebs such as Floyd Mayweather Jr and NBA star Paul Pierce have also been implicated. Mayweather appeared at Bitcoin conference ( to which he was booed) wearing an EMAX shirt.
Most of these celebrities are oblivious when it comes to crypto but they take huge amounts of payment to shill the asset. The SEC stated Kardashian allegedly failed to disclose she had taken a payment of $250,000 for publishing the instagram post which came with instructions or potential investors to purchase.
Gary Gensler of the SEC was all too happy to announce the charges via his personal Twitter account and retweeting that of the twitter of the SEC.
In a statement he had this to say:
“This case is a reminder that, when celebrities or influencers endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, it doesn’t mean that those investment products are right for all investors, We encourage investors to consider an investment’s potential risks and opportunities in light of their own financial goals.”
Some others on Twitter had some choice responses to Mr. Gensler.
Kim has agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle and will cooperate with an ongoing investigation. Mrs. Kardashian has also agreed to end crypto shilling for three years.
Gensler decided to add this statement as well:
“Ms. Kardashian’s case also serves as a reminder to celebrities and others that the law requires them to disclose to the public when and how much they are paid to promote investing in securities,”
This was not the first time Kardashian was approached by anyone for her part in the EMAX situation. Earlier this year investors sued her, Mayweather, and Pierce as investors accused them of colluding with EMAX cofounders Steve Gentile, and Giovanni Perone in an attempt to ma nipulate the price, luring buyers to purchase before dumping it, or making the coins worthless to holders.
The peak of the token was $0.000000597636 in May of last year after a 1,420% gain over a single week but plunged after that. The asset is currently being traded at $0.000000004504 , about 100% away from its all-time high according to a report by CoinGecko.
The SEC filing and lawsuit are separate with Kardashian still battling the lawsuit in courts. The defense of Kardashian stated token buyers were only relying on two of her instagram posts- and in those posts the celebrity was not giving any financial advice. They insist the investors haven’t specified whether the posts were viewed ahead of the sale or if they bought the tokens because of her posts.
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