Woman drops claim of Leon Black rape at Jeffrey Epstein estate

A lady who had actually implicated Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black of raping her at the New York estate of the late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein has actually consented to drop her civil suit versus Black.

The match by the female, Cheri Pierson, was “discontinued with prejudice and without costs to any party as against the other,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court filing Friday signed by her legal representative and Black’s lawyer.

That notation implies that Pierson can not reanimate her legal claims versus the billionaire financier Black in connection with the supposed attack at Epstein’s Upper East Side home in 2002.

It likewise implies that Black did not make a payment to settle the case.

Black had actually rejected Pierson’s claims, submitted in November 2022, that he had actually raped her in a suite at Epstein’s estate, where she had actually gone “believing that she would give Black a massage and receive the money that had been promised her in exchange,” according to her problem.

Black, in a declaration offered to CNBC on Monday, stated, “I have never met Ms. Pierson. I have no further comment.”

Black’s legal representative, Danya Perry, in her own declaration, stated, “This matter has been dismissed with prejudice. I will make no further comment.”

A spokesperson for Wigdor LLP, the law office that had actually represented Pierson, stated, “We have no comment at this time.”

Black in January 2023 consented to pay $625 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to be launched from any prospective claims associated with the area’s probe of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation there.

Two years previously, Apollo Global Management exposed that its then-CEO Black had actually paid Epstein $158 million for monetary recommendations from 2012 through 2017 regardless of him understanding that Epstein had actually pleaded guilty in 2008 to getting sex for pay from and minor lady in Florida.

Black left Apollo in March 2021, months earlier than he formerly had actually stated he would.

Epstein, 66, eliminated himself in August 2019 in a federal prison in Manhattan, a month after he was apprehended on federal kid sex trafficking charges.

Black in a letter Saturday independently withdrew his appeal of a judge’s judgment in Pierson’s case rejecting his movement for sanctions versus Wigdor.

Black had actually declared because movement that Wigdor had “repeatedly abused the court system to launder frivolous, unsubstantiated, and damaging accusations of sexual assault against Black across two lawsuits.”

The Wigdor law office is continuing to pursue a different suit versus Black that its lawyers submitted in July, declaring that he raped a then-16- year-old lady with autism at Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2002.

Another legal representative for Black in 2015 stated that he had actually never ever fulfilled the accuser, a female in her 30 s recognized by the pseudonym Jane Doe in filings in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

That lawyer, Susan Estrich, stated at the time, “These vicious and defamatory lies, masquerading as allegations, have been intentionally manufactured by the Wigdor law firm as part of the firm’s vendetta against Mr. Black for vigorously and successfully defending himself over the past two years,” Estrich stated.

A 3rd suit versus Black, submitted by a female called Guzel Ganieva, was dismissed by a Manhattan Supreme Court judge last May.

Ganieva had actually declared Black disparaged her by declaring she had actually obtained him for several years after they had what he stated was a “consensual affair.” Ganieva’s suit declared he was a “predator” who had “sexually harassed and abused” her for several years.

In dismissing her match, Judge David Cohen mentioned the truth that Ganieva had actually signed a non-disclosure contract with Black, who paid her about $9.5 million after she signed the NDA.

That contract launched Black from “all matters, causes of actions, claims, suits … arising prior to the signing of this Agreement … or any time in the future after the signing of this Agreement,” Cohen’s termination kept in mind.

Ganieva has actually appealed the termination of her suit.

Wigdor initially represented Ganieva in a fit versus Black, however she fired the company before the case was dismissed.

In August, Black taken legal action against Wigdor and Ganieva in Manhattan Supreme Court, declaring destructive prosecution versus him. That suit, which is pending, likewise points out Wigdor’s suits versus Black on behalf of Jane Doe and Pierson.

Wigdor and Ganieva have actually relocated to dismiss the problem.