XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh   
   From: bunch-of-liars@nytimes.com   
      
   Earlier this year, Kylie Jenner sold half of her cosmetics   
   company in one of the greatest celebrity cash-outs of all time.   
   But the deal’s fine print reveals that she has been inflating   
   the size and success of her business. For years.   
   Editor’s note, June 1, 2020: This story has been updated to   
   include a statement from Kylie Jenner’s representatives.   
      
   More than a decade into their fame, the Kardashian-Jenners tend   
   to induce eye rolls and sighs among jaded media consumers. But   
   when it comes to their wealth, even critics of reality TV’s   
   first family are intrigued; the Kardashian-Jenner machine—and   
   the cash it generates—has been the subject of articles,   
   podcasts, even books. But no one cares more about the topic than   
   the family itself, which has spent years fighting Forbes for   
   higher spots on our annual wealth and celebrity earnings lists.   
      
   So when the youngest of the clan, Kylie Jenner, sold 51% of her   
   Kylie Cosmetics to beauty giant Coty in a deal valued at $1.2   
   billion this January, it was a watershed moment for the family.   
   One of the greatest celebrity cash-outs of all time, the   
   transaction seemed to confirm what Kylie had been saying all   
   along and what Forbes had declared in March 2019: that Kylie   
   Jenner was, indeed, a billionaire—at least before the   
   coronavirus.   
      
   “Kylie is a modern-day icon, with an incredible sense of the   
   beauty consumer,” Coty chairman Peter Harf gushed when   
   announcing the acquisition in November.   
      
   But in the deal’s fine print, a less flattering truth emerged.   
   Filings released by publicly traded Coty over the past six   
   months lay bare one of the family’s best-kept secrets: Kylie’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.   
      
   Of course, white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are   
   to be expected from the family that perfected—then monetized—the   
   concept of “famous for being famous.” But, similar to Donald   
   Trump’s decades-long obsession with his net worth, the unusual   
   lengths to which the Jenners have been willing to go—including   
   inviting Forbes into their mansions and CPA’s offices, and even   
   creating tax returns that were likely forged—reveals just how   
   desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer.   
      
   “It’s fair to say that everything the Kardashian-Jenner family   
   does is oversized,” says Stephanie Wissink, an equity analyst   
   covering consumer products at Jefferies. “To stay on-brand, it   
   needs to be bigger than it is.”   
      
   Based on this new information—plus the impact of Covid-19 on   
   beauty stocks and consumer spending—Forbes now thinks that Kylie   
   Jenner, even after pocketing an estimated $340 million after   
   taxes from the sale, is not a billionaire.   
      
   As with other Kardashian ventures, Kylie’s business began as a   
   way to cash in on a minor scandal. The youngest of the family,   
   she spent more than a year denying tabloid speculation that she   
   was using lip filler injections before eventually finally   
   fessing up to it in May 2015. Far from being embarrassed about   
   being caught in a lie, she—and her shrewd mother, Kris—seized it   
   as a marketing opportunity.   
      
   With $250,000 of her earnings from modeling, endorsements and   
   Keeping Up With The Kardashians appearances, Kylie launched her   
   first batch of 15,000 lip kits, consisting of a lip liner and   
   matching lipstick, in November 2015. Thanks to clever Instagram   
   marketing, the $29 kits were gone in less than a minute. "Before   
   I even refreshed the page, everything was sold out," she later   
   told Forbes.   
      
   By the end of 2016, Kylie had dozens of new products and a   
   reputation as a skyrocketing new entrant in the cosmetics   
   industry. A few months after her sister Kim Kardashian West   
   scored a Forbes cover in July 2016, Jenner publicists began a   
   campaign to “get a Forbes cover for Kylie.” Revenues were $400   
   million over the business’ first 18 months, they said, with a   
   personal take-home pay of $250 million for Kylie. Pressed for   
   proof, they opened up their books. During meetings at Kris   
   Jenner’s palatial Hidden Hills, California, estate and the   
   family accountant’s office nearby, Forbes was shown tax returns   
   detailing $307 million in 2016 revenues and personal income of   
   more than $110 million for Kylie that year. It would have been   
   enough to put her at N0. 2 on the Celebrity 100 list, behind   
   only Taylor Swift, the accountant was quick to point out. But   
   the documents, despite looking authentic and bearing Kylie   
   Jenner’s signature, weren’t exactly convincing since the story   
   they told, of e-commerce brand Kylie Cosmetics growing from   
   nothing to $300 million in sales in a single year, was hard to   
   believe.   
      
   After speaking with a handful of analysts and industry experts   
   who also found the Jenners’ claims implausible, we settled on a   
   more reasonable estimate for our 2017 Celebrity 100 list: $41   
   million in overall earnings for Kylie, good for the No. 59 spot.   
   Kris was “so frustrated,” the Jenners’ PR flack shot back.   
   “We’ve done so much.”   
      
   Two months later, a story appeared in WWD, a trade publication   
   known as “the bible of fashion,” using the exact numbers the   
   Jenners first tried to give Forbes. “There has been raging   
   speculation about the size of her business, with guesstimates   
   ranging from $50 million up to $300 million,” the story reads.   
   “Well, here’s the bad news for more-established beauty players:   
   Jenner’s surpassed the higher figure with ease. Kylie Cosmetics   
   actually has done $420 million in retail sales—in just 18   
   months—Kris Jenner revealed. . . . ” It was the first time the   
   Jenners had publicly disclosed the size of the business, the   
   story boasted—“and they provided WWD with documentation.”   
      
   That sky-high revenue number—repeated everywhere from People to   
   CNBC and Fortune—took hold. By the summer of 2018, when Forbes   
   set out to calculate Kylie’s net worth for our list of the   
   richest self-made women, the industry’s opinion of Kylie’s   
   business had shifted. Those huge revenues were “totally   
   possible,” said one analyst, adding that she had heard similar   
   numbers herself. Another suggested revenues were around $350   
   million. The estimates kept climbing. Revenues were $400   
   million, according to a Piper Jaffray research note in 2018. An   
   Oppenheimer report projected sales would top $700 million by   
   2020.   
      
   The Jenners offered us their own number: 2017 revenues were up   
   7%, they said, to $330 million. “No other influencer has ever   
   gotten to the volume or had the rabid fans and consistency that   
   Kylie has had for the last two and a half years,” an executive   
   at e-commerce platform Shopify, which manages Kylie’s online   
   store, told Forbes at the time. Based on her rapid   
   success—certified by industry sources, plus those 2016 tax   
   returns—Kylie appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in July   
   2018, ranking No. 27 on our listing of the richest self-made   
      
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