Many of the world's rich and famous are big crypto fans. Now some are getting into trouble for being loudmouthed about it.
Reality TV star and businesswomen Kim Kardashian and ex-boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. are among several celebrities being sued for allegedly making misleading statements about cryptocurrency EthereumMax, through social media channels, «The Wall Street Journal» (behind a paywall) reported.
The defendants are being accused of leading investors into a cryptocurrency «pump and dump» scam in a class-action complaint filed last Friday in a Californian court, the paper wrote.
A post - marked as an advertisement - in which Kardashian asked her 278 million Instagram followers to join «the Ethereum Max Community,» prompted criticism from the U.K.’s financial conduct authority (FCA) in September last year.
Pump and Dump
«I can’t say whether this particular token is a scam,» Charles Randell, head of the FCA, said after the event in a speech on economic crime.
«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 added.
