Kim Kardashian in 2014. (Credit: Eva Rinaldi /Wikipedia)
Kim Kardashian is suing gossip website MediaTakeOut.com for indicating she faked being robbed and assaulted in Paris earlier this month, according to the Associated Press. Kardashian was robbed of more than $10 million worth of jewelry Oct. 2 at an apartment and was tied in a bathroom, her spokesperson told the Associated Press.
“The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court seeks unspecified damages from MediaTakeOut.com,” the AP reported. “It said Kardashian West, traumatized by the Oct. 3 armed robbery, was victimized a second time when the website reported hours afterward that she faked the robbery and lied about the assault.”
iMediaEthics has contacted MediaTakeOut for comment and a response to the lawsuit. Kardashian’s lawyer declined to comment to iMediaEthics beyond the lawsuit complaint, which we uploaded here.
According to the AP, the lawsuit complains about “a series of articles referring to her as a liar and a thief and alleged that she faked the robbery, lied about the violent assault and filed a fraudulent claim with her insurance company to cheat her carrier out of millions of dollars.” Kardashian tried to get MediaTakeOut to retract and apologize, the AP reported the lawsuit states.
Articles, according to the New York Daily News, were headlined
- “New Evidence Suggests… Kim Kardashian ‘STAGED’ The Robbery… Just Like RYAN LOCHTE!! (Here Are The FACTS) #KimRobbery.”
- French Authorities SUSPECT Kim Kardashian Of ‘LYING’… Suspect That She Is The One… Who ‘LET THE ROBBERS IN’!!!”
- “Kim Kardashian Just Filed An INSURANCE CLAIM… For $5.6 MILLION!! (If She Faked The Robbery. . . She Just Committed a FEDERAL CRIME).”
The first two articles have been unpublished, the Daily News reported. They go to pages that say the story has been “removed.” The third one appears to redirect to a dead page.
The lawsuit calls the headlines and stories “blatant defamatory lies.”
“Defendants have no credible or reliable sources for the outrageous claims included in the Articles,” the lawsuit states. “The only potential sources with actual knowledge of what happened to Kardashian,” according to the lawsuit are Kardashian, the apartment concierge and the robbers.
“Obviously, when viewed in the context of the other Articles — which directly accuse Kardashian of faking the robbery and lying to the French authorities — a reasonable person would understand this headline to imply that Kardashian has committed the federal crime of insurance fraud,” the lawsuit goes on.
UPDATED: 10/12/2016 3:48 PM EST With response from Kardashian’s lawyer.
