Kylie Jenner Facing Jail Time For ‘Billion Dollar’ Fraud?

Kylie Jenner’s billion-dollar net worth has come into question lately. Does she face jail time because of it, as one tabloid claims this week? Gossip Cop investigated.

Jenner came under fire last week when Forbes, the magazine that first reported her to be worth a billion dollars, rescinded its previous assessment of her wealth after it claims she and her accountants provided false documents inflating her net worth. This week, In Touch decided that would be a juicy story for its cover, alleging, among other things, that the makeup mogul faces up to five years in prison for fraud.

At the heart of the matter is tax records provided to the magazine when it was reporting the original story. Those documents, it maintains today, were falsified or fake. Using publicly available information about the sale of 51 percent of her makeup brand, Kylie Cosmetics, the magazine amended its previous assertion and re-evaluated Jenner’s net worth to under a billion dollars — though, she’s still very, very rich.

While the Forbes article is full of documentation and solid reporting, this tabloid report is, of course, the exact opposite. The unreliable outlet quotes a supposed source as saying, “It’s no surprise,” referring to the explosive Forbes article, “she’s obsessed with money, power and image, but her whole life is as fake as those lips.” Wow! With those strong words, it’s no wonder this “source” chose to remain anonymous.

The most dubious claim in the piece by far is the threat of prison. The tabloid quotes a “Beverly Hills attorney” — one that does not represent Kylie Jenner — as saying that Jenner’s “discrepancies could spark a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation,” which could mean legal trouble. “[If] the sale was a misrepresentation from the beginning [and she made] herself seem like she was worth more, it’s securities and investments fraud,” the lawyer explains. He adds,

“She could receive as much as five years in prison.”

Okay, so there are a couple things at play here. One: What is Kylie Jenner’s net worth? Frankly, we here at Gossip Cop aren’t qualified to make that call. Celebrity net worth (including all those sites you see on Google) are notoriously unreliable. The only real way to know is to see Jenner’s legitimate and unaltered bank and tax records, and we don’t have access to that, obviously.

But second is the jail time allegation. While it’s true that if Jenner lied on the tax return or about the value of Kylie Cosmetics to the company that purchased the 51 percent stake, then yes, Jenner would be in some serious hot water. But that’s not what Forbes has accused the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star. The financial publication is reporting that they believe Jenner and her representatives lied to its reporters. Lying to reporters is not a crime, and if it comes out that Jenner did misrepresent herself, she would likely face public ridicule, but not jail time.

The tabloids love the Jenners because the popular reality TV stars are good for selling magazines at the checkout counter. Gossip Cop has repeatedly busted various outlets for falsely reporting on the whole family, like in 2018 when In Touch’s sister outlet RadarOnline, which is owned by the same company, cynically alleged that Kylie Jenner doesn’t donate to charity. At all. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take a lot of research to debunk the story, as Jenner has given generously over the years. In fact, earlier this year, she gave $1 million to wildfire relief in Australia.

None of these attacks are new, either. In 2017, In Touch claimed that Travis Scott cheated on Jenner while she was pregnant with their daughter, Stormi. While similar allegations have been made more recently, Gossip Cop thoroughly debunked this claim back in 2017. It wasn’t true.