A software developer who worked with Kim Kardashian on her lucrative 'Kimoji' app claims he is financially ruined and living out of his car.
David Liebensohn, 43, and two colleagues invented the Ki Kardashian-themed range of emojis, which resulted in thousands of downloads per second and the app reportedly generating a million dollars a minute, writes Dailymail.
But they didn't get a cent after their deal collapsed after what he claims were misunderstandings, and Kim and her lawyer, Marty Singer, gave them little option but to walk away from developing 'Kimoji', losing a fortune whole.
Liebensohn sued Kim for $300 million in 2019 claiming she stole his idea, ran off with the trademark, telling DailyMail.com: "If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I want everyone to know the truth about Kardashian."
But Kim's team says Liebensohn willingly relinquished all rights to the app, giving Kim "unfettered" ownership of Kimoji, and noted that his claims against her were rejected by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
Liebensohn and his colleagues had originally agreed to a deal with Kardashian's team for a share of profits from 'Kimoji' and an anti-cyberbullying app they had created called CensorGram, which Kim was keen to be the face of. his.
Liebensohn says he was forced to drop his $300 million lawsuit after his legal fees spiraled out of control, along with the rest of his life.
He lost his home, his two million dollar business and his family, he told DailyMail.com. He now lives in his 2011 Toyota Prius to save on rent and showers at the gym.
Liebensohn says she has nothing to lose and has created a website www.kimkardashianruinedmylife.com using the only technology she owns – an iPhone 13.
He used to live in Oklahoma City, but has now moved to Los Angeles, where he has waved a banner on the streets of Hollywood saying: "Kim Kardashian ruined my life," which he hopes will attract the attention of the audience.
Liebensohn admits he is bitter and can't leave the situation at that.
"I thought people might want to know about this story, what do I have to lose now by telling it?" he asked.
"I'm literally sleeping in my car. I might as well put all of this into a story that people can maybe understand and see what happens."
"I lost my wife, my kids blamed me, they had a hard time in school, they were teenagers at the time and idolized that family - Kim and her sisters - then this happened and it destroyed us."
In his lawsuit, Liebensohn states that along with two partners, Narayan Shankar and his cousin Daniel Rice, he developed the app 'CensorGram' in 2014 to protect social media users' accounts from harassment, while also developing 'sexy' emoji content, which caught Kim's attention.
Kim's close friend Jonathan Cheban allegedly reached out to arrange a meeting and potential investment after she 'liked the idea', eventually meeting at Kris Jenner's Calabasas home in July 2014, where Liebensohn's lawsuit alleges they agreed to a 60/40 deal of profits from 'Kimoji' in favor of Liebensohn and his partners, and 50/50 for 'CensorGram'.
"I had other high-profile people very interested in working with us, but the Kardashian family just had the biggest following, so the celebrity endorsement would be huge," he said.
According to Liebensohn's lawsuit, Kardashian insisted in a phone call that her team submit the app for the 'Kimoji' brand themselves so that 'they didn't have to bear the cost,' but then things took a turn for the worse five minutes later when she angrily called back.
Liebensohn said: “Without my knowledge, one of our partners took a screenshot of some words on a page that Kim used in our app ‘CensorGram’. No user handle or private information. Just a small clip of a screenshot to brag about. Privately between him and a friend.”
“Now I've got nothing to lose and I'm getting viral attention on Reddit, TikTok and I've put up some billboards around California. People have been taking pictures of themselves, reading my story online and sharing it."
"I definitely haven't made the best decisions, of course I beat myself up a lot, but I'm not a bad guy or businessman."
"I am not greedy. I just want a life where I don't have to worry about how I'm going to survive at the age of 43."
"It always triggers me when I hear something about the Kardashian or Jenner families. Listening to Kanye's song, 'Facts,' where he says, 'Kimoji just closed the App Store, we made a million in a minute. It's really hard to avoid triggering when they're everywhere on TV and the internet," Liebensohn said.
"I want it to be fully known what happened to me. I just had to put it on a website and tell a cohesive story."
"I blame them for all of this. Because before I met them, I was on a positive trajectory. After that, everything I had worked for started to go downhill to the point where I'm now sleeping in my car. They are 1000% to blame." /Telegraph/
