NEW: Leon Black claims rape accuser was part of a corporate “coup”
of wealthy sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, claiming he sexually abused her for years and coerced her into signing a non-disclosure agreement to keep her silent about the assaults.
The private-equity titan resigned from Apollo last March, two months after an internal review found that he had paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 to 2017 for tax and estate planning and other financial advice. Black alsoas chairman of the Museum of Modern Art in wake of protests over his ties to the late sex-trafficker.
“The claims in Mr. Black’s legal memorandum are baseless, untrue and unsupportable,” Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for Harris, told The Daily Beast. Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer for Ganieva and partner at Wigdor LLP, also denied Black’s accusations. “Rather than responding to our client’s serious allegations of sexual assault and rape as alleged in her complaint, Leon Black is deflecting from his own conduct by infusing his personal strife with former partners at Apollo into her case,” she told The Daily Beast.
The filing doesn’t refer to any specific evidence or exhibits of the alleged smear campaign but instead points to a circumstantial timeline. “As 2020 turned into 2021, with an independent investigation into Mr. Black’s relationship with Mr. Epstein underway, Mr. Rubenstein—despite being on retainer with Apollo—worked specifically on Mr. Harris’ behalf,” Perry alleged. “This work included being in communication with Mr.
Ganieva first came forward with accusations of abuse in a series of tweets in March 2021. Weeks later, Black denied her claims and said, “I have been extorted by Ms. Ganieva for many years and I made substantial monetary payments to her, based on her threats to go public concerning our relationship, in an attempt to spare my family from public embarrassment.”
in federal court. Aside from Ganieva and her lawyers, Black named three other defendants: John Does 1 and 2, who he described as “public relations and social media professionals” and John Doe 3, a “funder” who is supposedly covering the costs of the litigation and alleged PR campaign against him. Wigdor’s lawyers added that “no amount of investigation could possibly have led Black or his counsel to a good faith belief that” the firm was involved with a “funder.” They said Black’s legal team knew Wigdor was representing Ganieva on a contingency agreement in her state court lawsuit. “No one has paid or reimbursed Wigdor for anything in connection with its representation of Ms. Ganieva,” they said.
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