A New York court ruled in favor of billionaire Leon Black, dismissing Guzel Ganieva’s defamation claims linked to their past relationship.
New York: A New York state appeals court recently sided with billionaire Leon Black, tossing out a defamation claim from Guzel Ganieva. She had accused him of rape and sexual abuse, which added a lot of drama to the case.
The court’s decision was 4-1, stating that Ganieva’s nondisclosure agreement from 2015 covered all her claims, including her defamation allegations. They pointed out that even if she felt pressured to sign, she accepted $9 million from Black, which included a monthly stipend, before filing her lawsuit in June 2021.
The judges acknowledged the trauma of sexual abuse but disagreed with the idea that Ganieva could back out of the agreement after benefiting from it for years. Black has consistently denied her claims.
One dissenting judge argued that Ganieva should be allowed to sue because she was under ongoing duress until she spoke out in March 2021 about their six-year relationship, which ended in 2014.
Ganieva’s lawyer didn’t respond right away, and Black’s spokesperson also had no immediate comments. The lawsuit followed a March 2021 interview where Black admitted to a consensual affair with Ganieva but accused her of trying to extort him.
He was reacting to her Twitter posts where she accused him of years of harassment and abuse. A trial judge had already dismissed her claims back in May 2023.
Black, who is 73 and worth $17.1 billion according to Forbes, is also facing another lawsuit from an autistic woman who claims he raped her in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion when she was just 16. His lawyers have called those allegations “categorically false.”
In 2021, Black stepped down as CEO of Apollo after a review revealed he paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning. The case is officially known as Ganieva v. Black in the New York State Supreme Court.
