An investor has filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California against boxer Floyd Mayweather, model and actress Kim Kardashian and former NBA star Paul Pierce for participating in the promotion of the altcoin EthereumMax (EMAX), Law360 has reported.
According to the plaintiff, the celebrities conspired with project organizers Steve Gentile and Giovanni Perone to drive up the price of the token. According to the lawsuit:
"Defendants touted the prospects of the company and the ability for investors to make significant returns due to the favorable 'tokenomics' of the EMAX Tokens. In truth, defendants marketed the EMAX Tokens to investors so that they could sell their portion of the float for a profit."
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The altcoin became widely known in late spring 2021. On May 26, Pierce posted a publicity post on his Twitter feed: within a few days, the price of EMAX peaked, after which it fell by more than 80% in 11 days.
In June, Mayweather appeared in public wearing a T-shirt with the EthereumMax logo.
The token's advertisement was also placed in Times Square in New York. At the time, it was traded on the decentralized exchanges Uniswap and 1inch, and ranked 2,575th in the CoinMarketCap rankings.