The YouTuber who defamed Cardi B cannot avoid paying millions of dollars in damages that she still owes by declaring herself bankrupt.
A judge last week ruled that relevant laws mean that, even as YouTube Creator Latasha Kebe goes through the bankruptcy process, the damages debt should not be impacted.
Cardi B - real name Belcalis Almanzar - sued Kebe over various claims she had made in her YouTube videos. The rapper always denied all the allegations that Kebe had made and told the court that false rumours spread by the YouTuber had had a negative impact on her mental health.
A jury found Kebe liable for defamation in January last year, awarding Almanzar nearly $4 million in damages. Of that, Kebe was personally liable for $3.4 million, while the remaining $500,000 was due to be paid by her company.
After an unsuccessful appeal of that ruling, it emerged in May that Kebe had filed for bankruptcy, claiming in legal papers to have assets totalling just $58,595. That raised the question as to whether Almanzar would ever see any of the millions in damages she was still owed.
However, according to Billboard, the rapper's lawyers argued that, although the relevant bankruptcy laws allow insolvent people to escape certain debts, they do not shield those people from being liable to pay monies owed for "willful and malicious injury". This exception, they said, should apply to Kebe “spreading false and defamatory statements” that were intended to cause harm.
Kebe's legal team didn't really seek to counter that argument and last week a federal bankruptcy judge agreed that the liability for the $3.4 million damages bill will remain unaffected by the bankruptcy process. Whether Kebe herself can be held liable for the other $500,000 debt is still to be considered by the courts.
