Cardi B vs. Tasha K Defamation Lawsuit, The Full Story Behind the $3.9 Million Judgment

Cardi B sued YouTube blogger Tasha K in 2019 after years of videos spreading false claims about her personal life. A federal jury sided with Cardi in January 2022, awarding nearly $3,900,000 in damages for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Tasha K’s appeal failed. She filed for bankruptcy in 2023. A court-approved repayment plan was confirmed in March 2025. As of April 2026, Cardi B has filed a sanctions motion alleging Tasha K violated the agreement at least 25 times. The case is still active.

Quick Facts

Field	Detail
Plaintiff	Cardi B (Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar)
Defendant	Tasha K (Latasha Transrina Kebe) and Kebe Studios LLC
Original Lawsuit Filed	2019
Jury Verdict	January 24, 2022 — Cardi B wins
Total Damages Awarded	Approximately $3,900,000
Appeal Result	Rejected — U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, March 2023
Bankruptcy Filed	May 2023 (Chapter 11)
Court-Approved Repayment Plan	March 2025 — $1.2 million over five years
Non-Dischargeable Debt	$3.4 million confirmed non-dischargeable (Oct. 2023)
Latest Development	Sanctions motion filed April 10, 2026 — 25+ alleged violations
Court	Southern District of Florida (bankruptcy); originally N.D. Georgia

Current Status

• Cardi B filed a new motion on April 10, 2026, asking a federal judge to impose “economically painful” sanctions on Tasha K, alleging she repeatedly violated a non-disparagement clause built into her bankruptcy repayment plan.
• The most recent violations listed in the filing are 16 posts Kebe published on X between April 6 and April 10, all tied to a shooting involving Offset outside the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
• A ruling on the sanctions request is pending. No hearing date has been publicly announced as of April 14, 2026.

What Did Tasha K Actually Say About Cardi B?

The underlying defamation lawsuit involved Cardi B alleging a “campaign of slander” by Kebe, which included false claims that Cardi B had herpes, used cocaine, and engaged in prostitution.

One Tasha K video cited in the lawsuit included a statement that Cardi had performed sex acts on a stripper stage. Other videos claimed she had contracted herpes, that she had been a prostitute, that she had cheated on her husband, and that she used hard drugs.

Tasha K published this content repeatedly across YouTube and social media, building an audience of over one million followers on the back of this kind of celebrity gossip. She refused to take the videos down even after repeated legal warnings.

What Cardi B Said on the Stand

During the trial, Cardi B testified about the severe emotional distress caused by these defamatory statements, including anxiety and depression that affected her health and personal relationships. Sources close to the trial said she described significant fluctuations in weight and relationship issues as a result of the stress from Kebe’s videos and posts. Cardi testified she felt “extremely suicidal” and “defeated and depressed” because of the content.

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What the Jury Decided

Following the January 2022 trial, jurors sided decisively with Cardi B, holding Tasha K liable for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They awarded more than $2.5 million in damages and another $1.3 million in legal fees. Judge William Ray later issued an injunction forcing Tasha K to pull the videos from the internet.

The $3.9 million award included punitive damages — an amount specifically designed to punish the conduct and deter its repetition.

The Appeal That Failed

Tasha K appealed the verdict, arguing the trial was “very lopsided” and that the judge withheld key information from jurors. A federal appeals court rejected the request in March 2023. In a five-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Tasha K had failed to properly make those arguments to the trial judge, meaning she forfeited the right to raise them on appeal.

Bankruptcy, and Why She Still Owes Almost Everything

Faced with a judgment she could not pay, Tasha K filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2023, listing just $58,595 in total assets — the vast majority tied to a truck held as loan collateral.

Cardi B’s legal team moved quickly. They filed an adversary proceeding — a lawsuit-like process within bankruptcy — to ensure Tasha K could not erase the defamation damages through the bankruptcy process. In October 2023, Judge Scott M. Grossman ruled that $3.4 million of the $3.9 million judgment was non-dischargeable, meaning Tasha K would remain on the hook for it even after exiting bankruptcy.

The remaining $500,000 — technically owed by Tasha K’s company, Kebe Studios LLC — was left for future proceedings to resolve.

The 2025 Repayment Plan — and the Agreement That Keeps Being Broken

In March 2025, Tasha K agreed in bankruptcy court to pay Cardi B more than $1.2 million over five years and to make no “derogatory, disparaging, or defamatory statements” about the superstar. In exchange, Cardi agreed to hold off on aggressively pursuing the full $3.9 million during the repayment period.

Tasha K acknowledged she makes court-ordered payments of $20,000 per month. At that rate alone, she would finish paying off the remaining $3.5 million balance in late 2040.

That settlement was barely a month old before the alleged violations started. In July 2025, Kebe posted a YouTube livestream referencing Cardi B’s relationship with Stefon Diggs and a separate post on X using coded language referencing a Billboard list ranking Cardi. Cardi B’s attorneys sent a formal notice demanding the posts come down. A second notice followed in August 2025 after Kebe posted on X inviting followers to guess who she was describing.

The GoFundMe, and What It Revealed

In early March 2026, Tasha K launched a GoFundMe campaign asking supporters to help her pay down the multimillion-dollar judgment. She wrote that the fundraiser was created “for one purpose only, to pay down the judgment debt.”

The $3.5 million goal attracted significant online attention, but raised only a fraction of that amount. During a TikTok livestream, Kebe publicly thanked Nicki Minaj for donating around $3,000 to it. Cardi B’s legal team flagged that livestream as itself a violation of the non-disparagement agreement, given its invocation of the longstanding Cardi-Nicki rivalry in front of a live audience.

The April 2026 Sanctions Motion

In her 46-page filing, Cardi B’s team documented more than two dozen “egregious violations” of the non-disparagement clause and asked the court to make future violations immediately and automatically expensive. The filing stated: “Without concrete sanctions that make violations economically painful, debtor has every incentive to continue precisely as she has been: post in violation of the plan and confirmation order, generate views and revenue, belatedly retract only when caught, and repeat.”

The filing also flagged a disclosure from a February 2026 radio appearance in which Kebe stated that a company called Now That’s TV had offered to fund a $1.5 million lump-sum settlement during the bankruptcy negotiations, and that the money was obtained. Her attorneys say that arrangement was never disclosed to the court or to Cardi B’s team — raising questions about Kebe’s finances that are directly relevant to the case.

The court has not yet ruled on the sanctions motion.

Important Dates

Milestone	Date
Cardi B files lawsuit	2019
Jury verdict — Cardi B wins	January 24, 2022
Injunction orders videos removed	2022
Eleventh Circuit rejects Tasha K’s appeal	March 2023
Tasha K files Chapter 11 bankruptcy	May 2023
Judge rules $3.4M non-dischargeable	October 5, 2023
Bankruptcy repayment plan approved	March 5, 2025
First alleged NDA violations	July 2025
Tasha K launches GoFundMe	March 2026
Cardi B files sanctions motion	April 10, 2026
Court ruling on sanctions	TBD

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Tasha K do that was illegal? 

A federal jury found Tasha K liable for three things: defamation (publishing false statements of fact that harmed Cardi B’s reputation), invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The key was that her statements — including claims about STDs, drug use, and prostitution — were false, not just opinions, and she published them repeatedly after being warned to stop.

Is Tasha K still required to pay $3.9 million? 

Tasha K cannot use bankruptcy to erase $3.4 million of the judgment. The court confirmed the debt follows her beyond bankruptcy. She remains on the hook for the full balance even after her Chapter 11 case closes.

What does “non-dischargeable” mean in bankruptcy?

 Most debts can be wiped out in bankruptcy. But courts can declare certain debts “non-dischargeable” — meaning they survive bankruptcy and the person must pay them even after their case ends. Defamation judgments based on deliberate wrongdoing typically qualify for non-discharge treatment, which is exactly what happened here.

What sanctions is Cardi B asking for? 

Cardi’s attorneys are seeking financial penalties for each future violation at the moment it is published — not after it gets taken down — along with attorneys’ fees spent monitoring and enforcing the agreement since March 2025. The goal is to attach an immediate financial cost to every post, removing the incentive to post-and-delete.

Can Tasha K just keep making content about Cardi B? 

Under the current bankruptcy agreement, she legally cannot. The non-disparagement clause covers all platforms and includes coded references her audience would understand as targeting Cardi, even without using her name. Cardi’s team is now asking the court to enforce that with automatic financial penalties.

Does the defamation verdict set a precedent for online creators?

 Yes, significantly. The case established that YouTube content creators face the same defamation liability as traditional media outlets. Publishing false statements of fact about a real person — even in the informal format of a YouTube commentary video — can result in multimillion-dollar judgments, injunctions, and years of legal consequences.

What is Tasha K doing now? 

Kebe continues to operate her UnWineWithTashaK channel and social media accounts. She is making court-ordered payments toward the judgment and launched a GoFundMe in March 2026 to help reduce her balance faster. She claims to be committed to paying down the debt, though Cardi B’s legal team disputes her compliance with the agreement’s other terms.

For more on how defamation and privacy claims affect public figures and online creators, read about the Tufts tenure lawsuit and the limits of institutional power and the McLaren Health Care data breach settlement on AllAboutLawyer.com.

Last Updated: April 14, 2026

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Legal claims and outcomes depend on specific facts and applicable law. For advice regarding a particular situation, consult a qualified attorney.