Reality TV star Kim Kardashian looks set to win an investor lawsuit against her and other celebrities over their endorsement of cryptocurrency EthereumMax (EMAX), after a judge tentatively dismissed the case on Monday, according to a Bloomberg report.
Along with retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, Kardashian was accused in a January complaint of hyping EMAX tokens, leading to investors paying higher prices for them.
Kardashian paid $1.26 million to the SEC last month to settle charges relating to her promotion of EMAX, in which she had not disclosed receiving a $250,000 payment for posting promotional for it.
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald in Los Angeles said on Monday that the investors' lawyers were "trying to act like" the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but “haven’t chosen to view the tokens as a security” as they did not invoke a standard securities fraud claim.
Judge Fitzgerald said Kardashian and her fellow defendants did not "care to label the tokens as a security for obvious reasons."
He added that he will issue a final written order in due course.
