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Editor’s Be aware: The next story incorporates mentions of sexual assault. To achieve the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline, name 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to on-line.rainn.org.
Billionaire artwork collector and Museum of Trendy Artwork (MoMA) trustee Leon Black is accused of raping a young person in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2002 in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday, July 25. The alleged sufferer was 16 years previous on the time, although court docket filings clarify that she was born with Mosaic Down Syndrome and that her “developmental age is round 12 years previous.”
Black’s monetary ties to Epstein — within the type of funds of $158 million, reportedly for property and tax companies offered between 2012 and 2017 — got here to gentle in 2021. Black stepped down as CEO of his personal fairness agency Apollo International Administration in late January of that yr. In February, Hyperallergic revealed an open letter signed by greater than 150 artists, artwork employees, and activists calling on MoMA to chop ties with Black. Though the museum introduced in Might 2021 that Black would now not function chairman of the board, he stays a trustee. MoMA has not responded to Hyperallergic’s requests for remark
Yesterday’s lawsuit, filed by Wigdor LLP on behalf of Jane Doe, claims that Epstein trafficked Doe into his predatory ring of underage ladies and taught her methods to carry out “massages” involving sexual activity. Epstein allegedly instructed the sufferer to offer a therapeutic massage to “his particular good friend Leon Black,” who’s accused of violently raping her utilizing grownup intercourse toys. The lawsuit alleges that {the teenager} was not taken to a health care provider after the incident regardless that she was bleeding and that Epstein instructed her that Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein’s confederate, who was sentenced to twenty years in jail final yr — would “maintain it.”
Black denies the allegations. In an announcement emailed to Hyperallergic, his lawyer Susan Estrich referred to as the latest lawsuit “frivolous and sanctionable” and stated the claims are “fully uncorroborated.” The lawyer additionally stated that Black by no means met the sufferer. “These vicious and defamatory lies, masquerading as allegations, have been deliberately manufactured by the Wigdor legislation agency as a part of the agency’s vendetta towards Mr. Black for vigorously and efficiently defending himself over the previous two years,” Estrich stated.
That is the third time a lady has pressed authorized costs towards Black for alleged sexual violence. In 2021, Guzel Ganieva accused Black of sexual abuse and harassment. The billionaire countersued for defamation. In November 2022, Cheri Pierson accused the billionaire of a “brutal” sexual assault at Epstein’s mansion.
“Sadly, Ms. Doe’s expertise is another in a protracted line of despicable and heinous experiences inflicted on a minor trapped in Jeffrey Epstein’s internet — an internet that prolonged to a bunch of highly effective and influential males, together with Leon Black,” the latest lawsuit reads.
Doe is represented by Jeanne Christensen at Wigdor, the legislation agency that represented each Pierson and Ganieva. Black filed a movement for sanctions towards Wigdor in December 2022.
Wigdor ultimately withdrew from the Ganieva case this March, citing Ganieva’s want to signify herself. A number of months later, Ganieva’s case was dismissed.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a New York Instances report on Friday that Black paid america Virgin Islands $62.5 million in a settlement to guard him from future accusations surrounding Epstein’s intercourse trafficking ring. In the meantime, in Washington, DC, the Senate Finance Committee is investigating Black and his fiscal ties to Epstein in a bigger probe into the extremely wealthy’s tax-avoidance schemes.
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