A group of memecoin buyers have filed a class action lawsuit against former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner, accusing her of selling celebrity tokens as unregistered securities.
Naeem Azad and Mihai Caluseru, citizens of the United Kingdom and Romania, filed a lawsuit in California federal court on November 13, alleging that Jenner and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, “misled financially inexperienced investors across the United States and internationally into purchasing unregistered securities.”
They claim to have lost over $56K buying JENNER on Ethereum and Solana, adding that they would not have suffered such losses if not for “false and misleading statements made by Jenner.”
The lawsuit alleges that Jenner “willfully failed to register” the Token with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that buyers “suffered significant harm” because they were not given information to assess investment risks, which they claim would have been shared if JENNER had been registered.
JENNER first launched on Solana via memecoin maker Pump.fun in May and quickly became embroiled in controversy after Jenner and other celebrities accused collaborator Sahil Arora of “scamming” them. Jenner later reissued the token on Ethereum.
The Ethereum token has lost almost all of its value since its launch, with the price hitting an all-time low on November 13, falling to $170K from a peak of nearly $7.5 million. Trading volume over the past day was just $1.80, according to CoinGecko.
JENNER has lost almost all of its value, and trading volume has plummeted since its launch in May. Source: CoinGecko
“Jenner appears to have completely abandoned the project, no longer actively promoted memecoin, and has left investors with serious losses,” the complaint alleges. “The possibility of recovering these losses is virtually non-existent.”
The lawsuit claims that shortly after the Solana token launched, Jenner began “promoting price and market cap targets” for it.
It then collapsed when Arora — who is not named as a defendant — sold a large portion of the tokens he owned, which the lawsuit claims was “the exact risk that Jenner had a duty to warn investors about when she was soliciting them to buy, which she intentionally failed to do for her own financial gain.”
Highlights from the lawsuit allege Jenner promised not to reissue the Token, but then allegedly reissued it on Ethereum. Source: PACER
Jenner then reissued the Token on Ethereum, which Azad and Caluseru claim devalued the original Solana Token but “applied a 3% ‘tax’” on each transaction — information they say Jenner “never properly disclosed” but “enriched Jenner greatly.”
They claim this violated securities laws by alleging that Jenner used profits from the Tokens to pay for listings on exchanges and promised to buy back the Tokens, both of which according to the lawsuit did not occur and contributed to additional losses.
The lawsuit also accuses Jenner of “intentionally failing to disclose information” such as the amount and cost of the JENNER shares she and other insiders held — which she allegedly acquired “earlier and cheaper than the average citizen” — along with details of her dealings with Arora.
Azad and Caluseru's lawsuit also alleges Jenner committed securities and common law fraud, and violated securities laws and aiding and abetting fraud against Hutchins.
Information about Jenner’s attorney was not immediately available. Jenner did not immediately respond to a request for comment via her website. Hutchins could not be reached for comment.
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