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Website Facing Kim Kardashian Lawsuit Deletes Article Suggesting She Staged Robbery

The reality TV star has filed a libel suit against MediaTakeOut.
PARIS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 30: Kim Kardashian West attends Buro 24/7 Fashion Forward Initiative as part of Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2016 at Hotel Ritz on September 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)
Jacopo Raule via Getty Images
PARIS, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 30: Kim Kardashian West attends Buro 24/7 Fashion Forward Initiative as part of Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2016 at Hotel Ritz on September 30, 2016 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

UPDATE: Kim Kardashian has dropped her lawsuit against MediaTakeOut. According to court documents, the reality star filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit against the site on Oct. 24.

PREVIOUSLY: The founder of gossip website MediaTakeOut Fred Mwangaguhunga walked back articles suggesting Kim Kardashian staged the $10 million jewelry robbery in Paris.

After Kardashian was held at gunpoint in the French capital this month, MediaTakeOut ran three articles speculating about the authenticity of the crime. The site suggested in one report that the reality TV star and her mother, Kris Jenner, had staged the whole event.

Though Kardashian is taking a “much needed break” and has not spoken out publicly since the assault, she filed a libel lawsuit against MediaTakeOut and its founder last week.

According to a copy of the complaint The Hollywood Reporter obtained, the lawsuit claims:

“Kardashian was assaulted and robbed by two masked men, who placed a gun to her head, duct-taped her hands, legs and mouth, and then left her lying helplessly on the bathroom floor of her rented apartment while the thieves absconded with millions of dollars in jewelry. As if that ordeal were not awful enough, Defendants made it worse by publishing on the Website, only hours after the assault, that Kardashian faked the robbery and then committed insurance fraud by filing a false claim with her carrier.”

MediaTakeOut removed the articles referred to in the suit from its website, and Mwangaguhunga sat down with CNNMoney to address his site’s faulty reporting.

“Our number one concern is providing the most accurate information to our readers,” Mwangaguhunga said. “If there’s anything out there that we feel is inaccurate or could possibly be seen as inaccurate or maybe someone sees as possible speculating, then it doesn’t make any sense from our standpoint to even have it out there.”

He said he realizes now that Kardashian West was actually robbed and that the articles suggesting otherwise “clearly hurt her.”

“Kim Kardashian is not just a celebrity, she is a human being,” he said. “She is a mother, she is a wife, and she was a victim of a violent crime. She definitely did not deserve it and she deserved to be believed.”

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