In August 2015 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote to a drug company
about a Kim Kardashian Instagram post and called it false or misleading. In
October 2022 the Securities and Exchange Commission found she had been paid
$250,000 to promote a crypto token without disclosing the amount.
Both times, she had told people she was being paid. Both times, what a
regulator found missing was something else.
This film is about what two regulators actually found, what a federal court has
and has not decided, and one case everybody reported the end of four years too
early.
⚖️ Kim Kardashian has never been charged with a criminal offence. She settled
with the SEC without admitting or denying its findings. The civil case here is
undecided — she denies the claims and no court has ruled on any of them.
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SOURCES — each is the document itself, not a report about it.
1. “Get your f---ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these
days” — Variety cover story, 9 Mar 2022. Paywalled now; Internet Archive’s
capture from publication day:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220309140208/https://variety.com/2022/tv/features/kardashians-hulu-kris-kim-khloe-1235198939/
2. The 2015 Instagram post reproduced verbatim; “false or misleading in that it
presents efficacy claims for DICLEGIS, but fails to communicate any risk
information”; “safer than has been demonstrated” — FDA Warning Letter to
Duchesnay, Inc., 7 Aug 2015, NDA 021876, Ref. ID 3803443, signed Robert T. Dean,
Office of Prescription Drug Promotion.
⚠ Addressed to Duchesnay, the manufacturer — NOT to Kim Kardashian, who was the
paid spokesperson. FDA no longer serves letters this old; archived copy:
https://web.archive.org/web/20151218045709/http://www.arentfox.com/sites/default/files/FDAWarningKardashian2341_001.pdf
3. $250,000 disgorgement, $10,415.35 interest, $1,000,000 penalty; approx. 225
million followers; Section 17(b); the three-year undertaking; settled without
admitting or denying — SEC Order 33-11116, File No. 3-21197, 3 Oct 2022:
https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/admin/2022/33-11116.pdf
⚠ The SEC’s own press release blends the first two figures into “approximately
$260,000.” The numbers above are from the order.
4. “the financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history”;
“she disclosed that this was an #AD. But she didn’t have to disclose…”; “I
can’t say whether this particular token is a scam” — Charles Randell, Chair of
the FCA, “The risks of token regulation”, 6 September 2021:
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/risks-token-regulation
5. Dismissal with leave to amend, and the full passage about “celebrities’
ability to readily persuade millions of undiscerning followers to buy snake
oil” — of which the press ran only the second half. In re EthereumMax Investor
Litigation, No. 2:22-cv-00163 (C.D. Cal.), Dkt 99, 6 Dec 2022:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.99.0.pdf
6. Nine of fourteen counts against her; the Fourth Cause of Action (Cal. False
Advertising Law §17500) against her alone; and the insider-trading count, which
names other defendants and NOT her — Corrected Third Amended Complaint, Dkt 190:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.190.0.pdf
⚠ Everything in a complaint is an allegation. It is a party’s document.
7. Four state classes certified, nationwide denied; “highly organized,
coordinated, and designed to defraud retail investors (if any of these disputed
facts are ultimately proven)”; merits left for summary judgment; and the court’s
note that it would consider decertifying — Dkt 288, 6 Aug 2025:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.288.0.pdf
8. Her own filed arguments — Kardashian’s Opposition to Class Certification,
Dkt 253:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.253.0.pdf
9. The current schedule — trial 20 July 2027, final pretrial 30 June 2027,
motions heard by 31 March 2027 — Order Granting Stipulation to Modify Case
Management Schedule, Dkt 314, 4 Aug 2026, signed Judge Fitzgerald:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.314.0.pdf
The parties’ joint stipulation behind it — Kardashian among them — Dkt 313:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865/gov.uscourts.cacd.840865.313.0.pdf
⚠ This trial date has moved four times. Check the docket yourself:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/61802418/in-re-ethereummax-investor-litigation/
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CLOUT — DOCUMENTING THE ZEROES IN WORLDLY HEROES
Celebrities, influencers, politicians and entertainers — and what the record
actually says. Every claim graded and sourced on screen.
No verdicts. Just the record.
Dorian Russell | D Booma San
https://linktr.ee/DBoomaSan
