An investor is suing Kardashian, Mayweather and Pierce over the promotion of the Ethereum Max (EMAX token) on their social media platform in the year 2021, he believes the celebrities connived with the developers to scam people.
Ethereum Max (EMAX) is the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency that gained notoriety last summer thanks to celebrity endorsements from Kim Kardashian, boxer Floyd Mayweather, and former NBA star Paul Pierce.
Now, a disgruntled investor is suing all three celebrities, alleging that they conspired with EMAX co-founders Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone to inflate the token’s price and then dump it, leaving normal investors holding the (largely worthless) bag.
Huegerich alleged in a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California that “Defendants hyped the company’s prospects and the opportunity for investors to make big returns due to the advantageous ‘tokenomics’ of the EMAX Tokens.” “In reality, defendants sold the EMAX Tokens to investors in order to profit from their piece of the float.”
On May 31, 2021, Ethereum Max reached a high of $0.000000597636 before plummeting by more than 80% in just 11 days. It then mounted a mini-rally around the time of Kardashian’s post in mid-June before plummeting much more. It has lost nearly 97 percent of its value since its peak and now sells for an even more insignificant $0.000000017659.
Huegerich bought EMAX tokens between May 14 and June 17 and plans to file a class action lawsuit as the lead plaintiff.
Mayweather’s involvement
Mayweather made the ERC-20 token famous when he showed up at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami in June wearing an Ethereum Max t-shirt, despite organizers urging guests to leave non-BTC assets at the door.
That month, EMAX sponsored a boxing contest between Mayweather and Logan Paul. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Mayweather in 2018 for promoting initial coin offerings without disclosing that he was paid to do so.
Kardashian’s involvement
Kardashian, who had previously linked to an EMAX-sponsored event ad in May, uploaded an Instagram story with her more than 200 million followers the following week in which she promoted Ethereum Max while using the #AD hashtag to indicate it was a commercial.
A screen read, “Are you guys into crypto????” “This is not financial advice; instead, I’m relaying what some of my friends told me about the Ethereum Max token! Just a few minutes ago, Ethereum Max burnt 400 trillion tokens, thus giving back half of their admin wallet to the whole E-Max community.”
Pierce’s involvement
Pierce was so taken with EMAX token burning (in which tokens are effectively destroyed to limit supply and boost demand) that he burned any remaining bridges with his former employer, ESPN, which had fired him as an analyst after a video surfaced showing him gambling with adult performers during COVID.
.@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 Bosshttps://t.co/3irnuWYve3 check it out for yourself
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) May 26, 2021
