Kim Kardashian is suing the website MediaTakeOut.com and its owner, Fred Mwangaguhunga, for libel over three posts that claim she faked her talked-about, terrifying Paris robbery and then committed insurance fraud.
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 35, filed a federal lawsuit against the site on Tuesday, October 11, according to documents posted by The Hollywood Reporter. “After having been the victim of a horrific and traumatic armed robbery in France, Kim Kardashian returned to the United States only to be again victimized, but this time by an online gossip tabloid that published a series of articles in early October 2016 referring to her [as] a liar and thief,” the docs claim.
Kardashian’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, says in the complaint that MediaTakeOut.com “claimed, without any factual support whatsoever, that Kardashian faked the robbery, lied about the violent assault, and then filed a fraudulent claim with her insurance company to bilk her carrier out of millions of dollars.”
The lawsuit cited a post from October 3 with the headline “New Evidence Suggests… Kim Kardashian and Her Mother ‘STAGED’ The Robbery… Just Like RYAN LOCHTE!! (Here Are The FACTS).” The documents claim that the article used random social media users as its sources. The next day, MediaTakeOut.com put up another piece, titled “French Authorities SUSPECT Kim Kardashian of ‘LYING’… Suspect That She Is The One… Who ‘LET THE ROBBERS IN’!!!”
According to the lawsuit, another one of the website’s posts said that the reality star filed an insurance claim for the estimated $10 million in jewelry that was stolen. MediaTakeOut.com wrote in the headline that “If She Faked The Robbery … She Just Committed a FEDERAL CRIME.”
According to the documents, Kardashian contacted the website to issue a retraction and apology, but the website did not oblige. The articles now appear to have been taken down. She is seeking general, special, punitive and exemplary damages.
MediaTakeOut.com could not be reached for comment.
As previously reported, five armed men dressed as policemen broke into Kardashian’s Paris apartment at the Hôtel de Pourtalès on October 3. The men gagged and bound her in a bathroom and stole millions of dollars in jewelry, including her new, upgraded engagement ring from husband Kanye West. Her rep told Us Weekly that she was “badly shaken by physically unharmed” in the incident.
