JetSmarter, the Fort Lauderdale-based private jet startup that Silicon Valley has valued at more than $1 billion, used celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Petra Nemcova to mislead customers, a new lawsuit alleges.

The complaint, filed in L.A. County Superior Court in California earlier this month, does not name the celebrities as defendants. But plaintiff Derek Milosavljevic, a JetSmarter customer, accuses JetSmarter of using the stars to plug the company without having them disclose that they were paid promoters.

“JetSmarter’s advertisements are unfair, unlawful, deceptive, and misleading, and have violated and continue to violate state and federal laws and regulations,” the suit alleges.

A Case Study In How Not To Do It

Most people I’ve talked to aren’t surprised that JetSmarter finally had to come 180 degrees from the buffet of free seats and empty legs. Nothing they saw provided a logical explanation that the company might be gaining profitability as it kept making incremental changes. It’s the journey from the good old days of tokens and free flights from New York to Los Angeles to the present that has sapped much of the goodwill from those early members.

In June it was announced free flights are no longer being offered for new members. Existing members who bought in under the expectation of flying free claim there is a deficit of inventory for their use. They also say they were being pushed into less attractive memberships, charged one price to then learn others were charged much less or dropping out of the program in some cases despite claims of high renewals.