Billionaire Leon Black Accused Of Rape In N.Y. Civil Suit

Topline

Hedge fund billionaire Leon Black– who stepped down as CEO of Apollo Global Management in 2015 amidst discoveries about his monetary relationship with late disgraced investor Jeffrey Epstein– was taken legal action against in New york city civil court Monday by a female who states she was raped by Black twenty years earlier.

Secret Truths

In a claim submitted Monday in New york city, Cheri Pierson declared she was raped by Leon Black in 2002 at Jeffrey Epstein’s New york city estate, in an attack she referred to as triggering her “agonizing discomfort.”

Pierson stated she had actually concerned Epstein’s townhouse to fulfill a “extremely effective and rich guy” who would have the ability to buy a skin care item Pierson intended to release.

Pierson stated Epstein set up the conference and informed her she would be offering the guy a massage, however Pierson stated in the claim that Black extremely assaulted her and left her with “grossly inflamed, ripped and bleeding” genital areas.

Pierson states in the claim she was presented to Epstein through disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who previously this year was sentenced to twenty years in jail after being founded guilty of trafficking victims as young as 14 for Epstein.

Black’s lawyer, Susan Estrich, informed Forbes Pierson’s accusations are “unconditionally incorrect” and part of a “a plan to obtain cash” from Black by threatening his track record.

Pierson is asking for a jury trial, undefined damages, for Black to cover her legal costs and a limiting order that would keep him from “such additional illegal conduct.” (The claim declares that Black, throughout his decades-long relationship with Epstein, slept with ladies handed down from Epstein after they grew out of Epstein’s choice for pubescent ladies.)

Tangent

The claim was submitted under the Grownup Survivor’s Act, a New york city State law that began a 1 year window in which sexual attack victims who were over the age of 18 when they were abused can sue their declared abusers no matter when the criminal activity happened or if the statute of constraints had actually ended. Other prominent cases brought under the act consist of a claim submitted by author E. Jean Carroll versus previous President Donald Trump, who has actually declared he searched her in the 1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing space.

Secret Background

Pierson’s attorney, Jeanne Christensen, likewise represents previous design Guzel Ganieva, who took legal action against Black in 2015 and declared that Black “sexually bugged and abused” her for many years. Pierson’s accusations were consisted of in Ganieva’s claim, however under a pseudonym. Ganieva’s case stays bound in court after Black implicated her of extortion. Black went back from Apollo, which he cofounded, in 2021, after a business examination discovered that Black had actually paid Epstein $158 million in costs for services, in addition to supplying him with more than $30 million in loans and a present of $10 million to Epstein’s charity. Epstein passed away by suicide in a New york city prison in 2019 while waiting for a trial for sex trafficking.