Left image by Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/AFP/Getty Images // Right image via AFP
Lawyering up with the Kardashians…
A class-action lawsuit by New York resident Ryan Huegerich is claiming that the company behind Ethereum Max (not to be confused with Ethereum) pulled off a massive pump and dump scam midway through last year. Huegerich believes that the company, which was only a few weeks old at the time, used celebrities Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce to promote the token and ”instill trust” in investors all while disguising their control over a “significant portion” of the total EMAX assets available for public trade.
It began with a then-recently fired Paul Pierce taking to twitter, stating: “I don’t need you. I got @ethereum_max,” on May 26. He then added that he had “made more money with this crypto in the past month then I did with y’all in a year.” This was followed by Mayweather sporting the EMAX logo on his trunks during his Logan Paul fight, along with him and his team wearing EMax shirts during lead up events. Naturally, this caused the price to surge, despite little being known about the actual function of the token.
Then Kim Kardashian posted to her 250 million followers on Instagram, letting them know about this amazing new token. The post read: “Are you guys into crypto???? This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token,” it reads, according to a screenshot included in the complaint. “A few minutes ago Ethereum Mac burned 400 trillion tokens — literally 50% of their admin wallet giving back to the entire E-max community.”
Again, this furthered an “artificial spike” which saw EtherumMax rocket up to 1,370% of its original value, only to come crashing at a rate of 98% thereafter, at which point (according to Huegerich’s attorney) Mayweather, Kardashian and Pierce “exited with major financial gains.”
The lawsuit, which also names EMAX executives Steve Gentile, Giovanni Perone and Justin French as defendants, says their posts and promotion led to a mass “buy-in to a worthless cryptocurrency platform,” and were neglectful in directing their followers to this shady company. Stay tuned for more on this debacle…
