The Kardashian sisters were sued on Monday by an investment firm seeking more than $180 million over their ill-fated beauty line. Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian were named as defendants in the civil lawsuit filed by Hillair Capital Management in Los Angeles, according to an article by TMZ. Hillair accused the reality stars of breach of contract, fraud and deceit after investing more than $10 million to salvage their struggling Kardashian Beauty makeup line.
The sisters in April 2014 settled a different copyright infringement lawsuit over the beauty line. They were sued along with Boldface Licensing and Branding over their Khroma Beauty makeup line by Lee Tillett who founded Florida-based Kroma Makeup in 2004.
Boldface rebranded the makeup line as Kardashian Beauty shortly after Tillett filed her lawsuit in June 2012. Hillair in court documents said it agreed to invest in the Kardashian Beauty makeup line in July 2014 ‘after former distributor, Boldface, went belly up amidst legal and financial troubles’.
‘The essence of the parties’ bargain was that Hillair would put up millions of dollars to fund the continued distribution of the Kardashians’ line, and the Kardashians would continue to be the faces of the line, and actively promote, market and support the line,’ according to court documents.
Hillair claimed that it lived up to its end of the deal, but the sisters did not.
‘The Kardashians immediately stopped marketing, promoting, and supporting the line and began courting new potential investors to buy out Hillair’s stake. In short, the Kardashians wanted a better, more lucrative deal,’ court documents said.
Hillair claimed that it ‘suffered significant damages’ due to the Kardashians. The investment company was seeking a jury trial. Hillair also was pursuing damages that include the $10 million already invested plus the value of their equity interest in the makeup line that was estimated ‘between $64 million and $180 million’.