Kylie Jenner faces jail after faking billionaire status, lying about cosmetic line's value to Forbes: Lawyer
Kylie Jenner could end up facing a criminal investigation and possibly even jail over the alleged exaggerations of her company's value that landed her billionaire status.
The cosmetics mogul has reportedly been kicked off the Forbes billionaire list by the magazine on Friday, May 29. This move came as a shock to all after the magazine claimed that financial filings with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) suggest she may have been lying about her company's value.
According to lawyer Jan Handzlik who currently defends celebrities and big companies in financial fraud cases believes that these alleged exaggerations could land Kylie in a lot of legal trouble and hot water, Daily Mail reveals.
"My guess is that at a minimum the SEC will begin what they call an informal inquiry and then perhaps elevate that to a formal investigation, which gives them subpoena power," Handzlik shared.
"In this matter, you've got a mixture of things that may lead to both civil and criminal scrutiny early on: obviously the celebrity aspect, the large amount of the alleged exaggeration, and the highly public nature," he added.
"All of this is like catnip to a prosecutor or the SEC, because it will lead to very heavy coverage of what takes place," he continued. Post the allegations made by Forbes, the mother of one took to Twitter to slam Forbes.
She wrote, "What am I even waking up to. I thought this was a reputable site. all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period."
Kylie then shared a quote from the Forbes report which accused the Jenners and their accountant of producing false tax returns. "Even creating tax returns that were likely forged that's your proof? so you just THOUGHT they were forged? like actually what am i reading," Kylie retaliated.
The coveted magazine had Kylie on its cover for the issue in 2018 on women billionaires and had named her the world's youngest self-made billionaire in 2019 and 2020.
Handzlik says that after being interrogated by the SEC, Kylie could also face a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (DoJ). "Those things may very well lead to the US Attorney’s office and the Southern District of New York in particular jumping sooner than they might otherwise."
"If the Department of Justice decides to make this a criminal case... if there were to be a conviction, that could include jail time for any individuals who were responsible," he continued.
We had previously reported that Kylie owns an estimated 44.1% of Kylie Cosmetics, rather than 49% and while she claimed her cosmetic company sold more than $300 million in makeup, in reality, it only did $125 million.
On May 29, an investigative report said, "Forbes has recalculated Kylie’s net worth and concluded that she is not a billionaire. A more realistic accounting of her personal fortune puts it at just under $900 million, despite the headlines surrounding the Coty deal that seemed to confirm her billionaire status."
It further read, "More than a third of that is the estimated $340 million in post-tax cash she would have pocketed from selling a majority of her company. The rest is made up of revised earnings based on her business’ smaller size and a more conservative estimate of its profitability, plus the value of her remaining share of Kylie Cosmetics—which is not only smaller than the Jenners led us to believe but is also worth less now than it was when the deal was announced in November, given the economic effects of the coronavirus."