NEW YORK — A Latest York state judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Apollo Global Management Inc billionaire co-founder Leon Black of defaming a lady by falsely claiming she tried to extort him after accusing him of rape.
Justice David Cohen said the accuser, Guzel Ganieva, couldn’t pursue her claims after receiving $9.5 million from Black under a nondisclosure agreement that followed their six-year relationship, which resulted in 2014.
Black, 71, has denied raping or behaving inappropriately with Ganieva, who’s about three a long time younger.
Black left Apollo in 2021.
Cohen said Ganieva’s acceptance of Black’s payments and decision to not contest the nondisclosure agreement barred her from claiming she signed it under duress.
The Manhattan judge also found no proof that Ganieva, a single mother and former Russian model, didn’t understand the agreement.
“The NDA clearly and unambiguously covers all claims arising out of the parties’ relationship, past or future,” Cohen wrote.
A Latest York state judge dismissed a lawsuit against Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder Leon Black by a rape accuser.REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
Ganieva fired her law firm in March and selected to represent herself, court records show.
She didn’t immediately reply to a message left at a phone number listed for her Manhattan home.
“From the very starting, I’ve made clear that Ms. Ganieva’s allegations against me were false,” Black said in a press release. “I’m gratified that the reality has come out and justice has been finally done.”
The lawsuit stemmed from a March 2021 interview through which Black said he had “foolishly had a consensual affair” with Ganieva, and that she extorted him based on threats to go public.
He was responding to posts on Twitter where Ganieva accused him of getting sexually harassed and abused her for years.
Black is price $8.8 billion, in response to Forbes magazine.
He still faces a lawsuit by one other woman, Cheri Pierson, who has accused him of raping her twenty years ago within the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan.
Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Black, in an interview following Cohen’s decision said Pierson’s lawsuit, like Ganieva’s, had no merit and “will likely be dismissed.”
