Forbes has alleged that Kylie Jenner is not a billionaire, and has accused the Kardashian-Jenner's of weaving a "web of lies", wherein the 22-year-old beauty mogul has continually inflated the size of her business and success, "for years".
The publication's claims come a year after Forbes put Jenner on their cover, and hailed her as the youngest self-made billionaire, for two years running. Now, they say that she has lied about company figures and forged tax returns to reach the prized billionaire milestone.
Reporters, Chase Peterson-Withorn and Madeline Berg, describe how Jenner sold half of her cosmetics company in what they say was "one of the greatest celebrity cash outs of all time".
"But in the deal’s fine print, a less flattering truth emerged," they continue, stating that filings released by publicly traded Coty over the last six months reveal that Jenner's business is "significantly smaller, and less profitable, than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe."
Forbes then goes onto explain that while "white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are to be expected from the family that perfected—then monetized—the concept of “famous for being famous", their recent uncoverings "reveals just how desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer."
This, and the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has affected beauty stocks and consumer spending, leads the publication to believe that Jenner is not a billionaire, even after pocketing a reported $340 million after tax from the Coty sale.
The reporters continue, "More likely: The business was never that big to begin with, and the Jenners have lied about it every year since 2016—including having their accountant draft tax returns with false numbers—to help juice Forbes’ estimates of Kylie’s earnings and net worth. While we can’t prove that those documents were fake (though it’s likely), it’s clear that Kylie’s camp has been lying."
Peterson-Withorn and Berg describe how their doubts about Jenner's billionaire status were "seemingly erased in November 2019" when "$8.6 billion (revenues) Coty announced it was snapping up 51% of Kylie Cosmetics for $600 million, effectively valuing the business at about $1.2 billion."
They say this gave the Keeping up with the Kardashians star "a major chance at expansion, plus a boatload of cash and apparently clear proof of her billionaire status."
However, in light of this new information and the current Covid-19 pandemic, Forbes has recalculated Jenner'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. 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."
Watch as Kylie Jenner trolls her family during quarantine:Since then, the publication details that Coty's share price has fallen more than 60 percent since they made the deal with Jenner, and that competitors that are performing better, such as Ulta Beauty and Estee Lauder, are even down to single digits.
This, as well as the fact that "Wall Street tends to think Coty paid too much to begin with," leads Forbes to conclude that there is "no way to realistically peg Kylie’s net worth above a billion—despite her massive cashout."
Forbes asked the Kardashian-Jenner for comment on their numbers, but they reportedly "stopped answering" their' questions.
The article can be read in its entirety here.