BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Disgraced Billionaire Leon Black Sues Ex-Girlfriend, Law Firm for Defamation

Leon Black’s lawsuit was filed in Manhattan on Thursday.

Billionaire Leon Black, whose lucrative relationship with Jeffrey Epstein cost him his job, has sued ex-girlfriend and former model Guzel Ganieva and the law firm representing her charging them with defamation and racketeering. The lawsuit, first reported by the Daily Mail, alleges Ganieva worked with Wigdor Law to “line their own pockets” while bringing Black down by tying him to Epstein. “Knowing that to him, and in his world, reputation matters, they set about to destroy him and make him pay anything to make them stop,” his lawyers wrote. Ganieva had alleged Black raped her and allowed Epstein to rape her in Florida in 2008, with her abuse continuing through 2015.

She later amended her complaint last month to include the comments of a “Jane Doe,” who alleged Black raped her in Epstein’s New York mansion in 2002. Black, who is married, has admitted to a relationship with Ganieva, but he claimed the affair was consensual and that he paid Ganieva $100,000 a month for 15 years to keep it quiet. Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer for Ganieva and a partner at Wigdor, said the allegations were “delusional.” “This is an obvious act of retaliation,” she said to the Mail. “We look forward to defending ourselves against these ludicrous allegations.”