A group of memecoin buyers has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, accusing her of selling the celeb token as an unregistered security.
Naeem Azad and Mihai Caluseru, respectively citizens of the United Kingdom and Romania, filed the complaint to a California federal court on Nov. 13, alleging Jenner and her manager Sophia Hutchins “fraudulently solicited financially unsophisticated investors throughout the United States and abroad to purchase the unregistered securities.”
They claimed to have lost over $56,000 from buying JENNER on Ethereum and Solana, adding they wouldn’t have “had it not been for the false and misleading statements and omissions made by Jenner.”
The suit claimed Jenner “willfully failed” to register the token with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and buyers “suffered significant damages” as they didn’t have information to evaluate the risk of investing, which they said would have been shared if JENNER was registered.
JENNER was first launched on Solana through the memecoin maker Pump.fun in May and was soon embroiled in controversy after she and other high-profile figures claimed collaborator Sahil Arora “scammed” them. She then relaunched the token on Ethereum.
The Ethereum token has essentially lost all value since launch, with its price hitting an all-time low on Nov. 13 and its value plummeting to $170,000 from a peak of nearly $7.5 million. It also saw just $1.80 in trading volume over the past day, according to CoinGecko.
JENNER has basically lost all its value, and trading volumes have tanked since its launch in May. Source: CoinGecko
“Jenner appears to have all but abandoned the project, no longer actively promotes the memecoin, and has left holders on the hook for serious losses,” the complaint alleged. “It is unlikely these losses can ever be recovered.”
The lawsuit claimed that soon after the Solana token was launched, Jenner began “touting price and market capitalization targets” for it.
It then crashed after Arora — who was not named as a defendant — sold a large portion of the token he owned, which the suit claimed was “the exact risk that Jenner had a duty to warn investors of when she was soliciting their purchases, which she willfully failed to do for her own financial benefit.”
A highlighted excerpt of the complaint alleging Jenner promised not to relaunch the token, which was later allegedly relaunched on Ethereum. Source: PACER
Jenner then relaunched the token on Ethereum, which Azad and Caluseru claimed tanked the value of the original Solana token but had “instituted a 3% ‘tax’” on every transaction — information they said she “has never properly disclosed” but has “enriched Jenner tremendously.”
They claimed this broke securities laws as they alleged Jenner used profits from the token to pay to list it on exchanges and promised token buybacks, both of which the suit asserts never happened and contributed to further losses.
The suit also alleged that Jenner “willfully omitted information” such as the amount and cost of her and other insiders’ JENNER holdings — which she allegedly benefitted from obtaining “earlier and cheaper than the general public” — along with details on her dealings with Arora.
Azad and Caluseru’s suit also brings claims against Jenner of securities and common law fraud and brings securities law violations and aiding and abetting fraud claims against Hutchins.
Information on Jenner’s lawyers was not immediately available. Jenner did not immediately respond to a request for comment via her website. Hutchins could not be reached for comment.
Magazine: Caitlyn Jenner memecoin ‘mastermind’s’ celebrity price list leaked
