Reality TV star Kim Kardashian founded a private equity fund, Skky Partners, which she co-founded with Jay Sammons, a former partner at investment firm Carlyle Group.
Photo by James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images
Kim Kardashian’s crypto misadventure has landed her in hot water with federal authorities.
The reality TV superstar and influencer has settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges for failing to disclose a payment she received for promoting a crypto asset on her Instagram feed, the agency said on Monday morning with.
“This case is a reminder that celebrity or influencer endorsement of investment opportunities, including crypto-asset securities, does not mean those investment products are appropriate for all investors,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a press release.
Kardashian representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kardashian, who is reportedly worth $1.8 billion, agreed to pay $1.26 million to cover fees for a promotion on Meta’s Instagram for EthereumMax’s crypto asset, the said SEC. It will also cooperate with an ongoing investigation and has agreed not to mine cryptocurrency securities for three years, the regulator added.
However, Kardashian, who has built a media and lifestyle empire, has neither admitted nor denied the regulator’s findings, the SEC said.
Kardashian has already felt regulatory heat over her EthereumMax promo, which she posted to Instagram last June. She began the post by asking her millions of followers, “ARE YOU IN CRYPTO??? THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE BUT SHARE WHAT MY FRIENDS JUST TOLD ME ABOUT THE ETHEREUM MAX TOKEN.”
Investors sued them, former NBA star Paul Pierce and superstar boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. earlier this year for their promotions of EthereumMax, accusing them of artificially inflating the asset’s value.
The SEC said Monday that Kardashian failed to report that she received $250,000 for publishing a post about EMAX token, a crypto asset offered by EthereumMax. The post with the hashtag “#ad” included a link to the EthereumMax website, which gives users instructions on how to buy the tokens, the regulator added.
Her failure to disclose the payment violated federal securities laws, the SEC said. She agreed to pay $260,000, which includes the payment received plus interest in addition to the $1 million penalty, the agency added.